Etymologically
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inaequalitas

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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]

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