impervius

Forms

impervius (feminine impervia, neuter impervium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Also spelled inpervius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in-² (“not”) + pervius (“passable”).^[2][4] De Vaan lists pervius among the derivatives of via (“way, road”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, of a river full of whirlpools that could not be crossed.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a word of poetry and of post-Augustan prose.^[3] Tacitus uses it of roads made impassable by the contractors' fraud and the magistrates' neglect, and of a stone that fire cannot penetrate;^[2] Quintilian uses it figuratively of a path that is not impassable.^[2] In Medieval Latin it describes stone so dense that the eye cannot see into it.^[6]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of an impassable river.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it figuratively of a path.^[2]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of impassable roads and of a fireproof stone.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Affording no way through, impassable.^[2][3]
2. Not penetrable (by fire, sight), impervious.^[2][6]

Related words

• pervius
• via
• invius

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press