impunis

Forms

impūnis (neuter impūne, adverb impūnē); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Latin impūne (“without punishment”).^[2][3] The adverb is formed with in- (“not”) and poena (“penalty”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apuleius uses it in the Metamorphoses of someone who expects to go not only unpunished but even praised.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is very rare and perhaps only post-classical, while the adverb impūne was frequent and classical.^[4] A second instance in Solinus is doubtful, since Mommsen reads immūnis there.^[4][3] English borrowed it in the 1610s as impune “unpunished”, now obsolete.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[3][5]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – A doubtful reading in Solinus.^[4][5]
• 1610s – English impune “unpunished” is taken from it.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unpunished, going without punishment.^[2][4][6]

Word family

• impūnitās

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com