Etymologically
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inauspicatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪ.nau̯s.pɪˈkaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [i.nau̯s.piˈkaː.tus][1]

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