Etymologically
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importuosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.pɔr.tuˈoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.por.tuˈɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

importuōsus (feminine importuōsa, neuter importuōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + portuōsus (“having many harbours”),[1][2] or, as the OLD analyses it, portus (“harbour”) with the negative prefix and the suffix ⟨-ōsus⟩.[3][4]

That noun goes back to Proto-Italic *portu- (“harbour”) and Proto-Indo-European *pr-tu- (“crossing, ford, bridge”).[5] Cognate with Avestan pərətu- (“crossing, bridge”), Old High German furt and Old English ford.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Sallust,[4] who calls the sea off the African coast mare saevum, importuōsum, “a savage sea without harbours”.[3][2][6]

Semantic evolution

Livy uses it of the harbourless shores of Italy on the left, and Tacitus, Seneca and Pliny the Younger of coasts;[6][2] the superlative appears in Pliny the Elder, of an island that is the most harbourless of all.[6][3]

In medieval British Latin Robert Grosseteste uses it, after Isidore, of the coast at Alexandria.[7]

Timeline

  • 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of the sea off Africa.[3][2][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the shores of Italy.[6][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the superlative of an island.[6][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it in the Annals.[6][2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having no harbours, harbourless.[3][6][7]

References

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