inaestimabilis

Forms

inaestimābilis (neuter inaestimābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + aestimābilis (“that can be valued”),^[2][3] and aestimābilis is formed from aestimō (“to value, estimate”).^[1][4]

The TLL records the spelling ⟨inextimabilis⟩ in a Christian inscription and in some manuscripts.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in his account of Stoic ethics for what does not deserve to be valued, the opposite of aestimābile.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Livy it means that which cannot be estimated or reckoned, such as the mood of the crowd, and more often something incalculably great or precious, like an immense joy.^[2][5] The jurists use it of things that have no price in money: lībertās inaestimābilis rēs est, “freedom is a thing beyond valuation”.^[2]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “priceless, inestimable”.^[6] In medieval Latin it also meant “innumerable”, “incomprehensible, miraculous” and “worse than one could imagine”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it as a Stoic term for what has no value.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it for what cannot be reckoned and for something incalculably great.^[2][4]
• Medieval Latin – It comes to mean “innumerable” and “miraculous”.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be estimated or judged.^[2][5]
2. (law) Not to be reckoned in money.^[2]
3. Inestimable, incalculably great or precious.^[2][5]
4. (philosophy) Not deserving to be valued, worthless.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) Innumerable.^[7]
6. (Medieval Latin) Incomprehensible, miraculous; worse than one could imagine.^[7]

Related words

• aestimābilis
• aestimō
• inaestimātus

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 j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill