inane

Forms

ināne n (genitive inānis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of inānis (“empty”), used as a noun.^[2][1] De Vaan finds no certain etymology for ⟨inānis⟩, and notes that “empty, lacking” is recorded before “hollow”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Lucretius it is the void of Epicurean physics: namque est in rēbus ināne, “for there is void in things”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In philosophy it is space empty of matter: Cicero reports Epicurus' atoms moving through the infinite void, where there is no top or bottom.^[2] In poetry it is an empty expanse, especially the sky: Virgil's stone rolls through the void, and Ovid's arrow sounds through it.^[2] Livy has a hollow inside a mine, and Seneca empty places in the earth.^[2] In the plural it is empty or illusory things, as Cicero's empty show of nobility and Horace's poet chasing clouds and empty air.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the void.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the void and of vanities.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the empty sky.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a hollow in a mine.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Empty space, the void; the sky.^[2][1]
2. An empty part, a hollow.^[2]
3. (plural) Empty things, vanities.^[2][1]

Related words

• inānis
• inānitās
• vacuum

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts inānis, empty of what once filled it, with vacuus, empty but able to be filled; used as nouns, ināne is a nothing, vacuum a vacancy.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper