inauspicatus

Forms

inauspicātus (feminine inauspicāta, neuter inauspicātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + auspicātus (“having taken the auspices”).^[2][3] The participle belongs to auspicor (“to take the auspices”), from auspex (“augur, bird-diviner”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of avis (“bird”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Livy,^[5] where the question is raised whether a law passed without auspices could have bound even the immortal gods.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is religious and political: done without taking the auspices.^[2][6] After Augustus it came to mean ill-omened or unlucky:^[6] Seneca uses it in the Oedipus, Petronius of a place, and Pliny the Elder of birds and animals of bad omen,^[3][7] saying that the Romans renamed Epidamnus Dyrrachium because of its ill-omened name.^[3] Pliny also judges it most unlucky to clear the table while a guest is drinking.^[6]

In Late Latin Ennodius uses it for unhoped for or unexpected.^[6][7] The grammarian Donatus explains it as something done without auspices.^[3]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a law passed without the auspices.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in the sense ill-omened.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of animals of bad omen and of an ill-omened name.^[6][3][5]
• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus glosses it as without auspices.^[3][5]
• before 513 AD – Ennodius uses it of unexpected success.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not sanctioned by the auspices, done without taking the auspices.^[2][6]
2. Inauspicious, unlucky, ill-omened.^[2][6]
3. (Late Latin) Unhoped for, unexpected.^[6][7]

Usage notes

The ablative inauspicātō is used as an adverb, without the sanction of the auspices;^[2][6] Cicero uses it of crossing the pōmērium without taking them.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier