Etymologically
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inaudio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈnau̯.di.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈnaːu̯.di.o][1]

Forms

inaudiō (present infinitive inaudīre, perfect active inaudīvī or inaudiī, supine inaudītum); fourth conjugation[1] Archaic indaudiō is the regular form in Plautus.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + audiō, from the prefix of direction and audiō (“to hear”).[2][3][4] The archaic form ⟨indaudiō⟩, with the prefix indu-, is regular in Plautus.[2][3][5] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *awizdje/o-.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,[2][7] in the sense of getting wind of something: in the Haunted House a speaker fears that someone may have heard something of the affair.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means above all to hear of something, especially something secret, and Lewis and Short note that it is mostly early Latin and mostly in the perfect tenses.[5] Novius uses it of catching the sound of a song.[2][5] Cicero has it often in his letters, with a person or thing it concerns, or with an accusative and infinitive.[8][7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of hearing about an affair.[2][9]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it of hearing something.[5][9]
  • 1st century BC – Novius uses it of catching the sound of a song.[2][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his letters for learning news.[8][7][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To catch the sound of, hear.[2]
  2. To learn by hearing, hear of, get wind of (often a secret); with an accusative and infinitive, to hear that.[2][5][7]

Word family

  • inaudientia

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de