inaequalitas

Forms

inaequālitās f (genitive inaequālitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin inaequālis (“uneven, unequal”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] The adjective is a compound of in- (“not”) and aequālis (“equal”), which de Vaan lists from Plautus on among the derivatives of aequus (“level, equal”); for aequus itself he finds no convincing etymology.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Varro,^[5] who in the De lingua Latina uses it of a toga and a tunic.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is not found in Cicero.^[6] It means irregularity of shape or surface, as of a jar in Columella or of the hollows of valleys in Pliny the Elder, and patchiness, as of clouds in Seneca.^[2] Seneca the Elder and Seneca apply it to an uneven style of speaking.^[2] It is also inequality of size, weight or duration, unequal treatment, and unlikeness or variation, as of soils in Columella;^[2] Gellius uses it to explain Greek anomalia in grammar, irregularity of declension.^[2] Of a person it is inconsistency: Seneca says Socrates stayed the same amid great changes of fortune.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means inequality,^[7] and in medieval Latin it also came to mean inferiority or defect, and weakness or illness.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a toga and a tunic.^[6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of patchy clouds, of uneven style and of inconsistency.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the irregular shape of a jar and of differences of soil.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of irregular declension.^[2][5]
• Medieval Latin – It means a defect, and weakness or illness.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Irregularity of shape or surface; patchiness; unevenness of style.^[2][6]
2. Inequality in size, weight or duration; unequal treatment, inequity.^[2][7]
3. Unlikeness, variation, dissimilarity.^[2]
4. Of persons, inconsistency, changeableness.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Inferiority, defect; weakness, indisposition.^[8]

Related words

• aequālitās
• English inequality

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill