impiger

Forms

impiger (feminine impigra, neuter impigrum, adverb impigrē); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1] It is also spelled inpiger.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + piger (“sluggish”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces piger to Proto-Italic *pig-ro- (“inactive”) and finds no etymology for the root.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[5][6] Cicero uses it in the Verrines of a man who showed himself patient and active.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means not slothful: active, energetic, brisk or tireless, as Cicero's man active in writing letters.^[2][3] Poets use it predicatively in an adverbial sense, as Virgil's “he eagerly drained the foaming bowl” and Horace's merchant who runs tirelessly to the farthest Indies.^[2] Lucan applies it to the river Cephisus, and others to activities.^[2] Church Latin glosses it diligent, industrious, quick.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an active man.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of eagerly draining a bowl.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a tireless merchant.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not slothful, active, energetic, brisk, diligent.^[2][3][7][1]
2. Predicatively, eagerly, tirelessly.^[2]

Word family

• impigritās
• impigritia

Related words

• piger

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson