Etymologically
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incapabilis

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Forms

incapābilis (neuter incapābile); third-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in-2 + capābilis (“that can be grasped”),[3][4] formed after Greek ἀχώρητος (akhṓrētos), which the glossaries give as its equivalent.[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Latin translation of Irenaeus says of the Father that he was without beginning and incomprehensible (sine initio et incapabilis);[3] the first dated author to use it is Augustine, in a sermon.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

In Christian writers it meant that cannot be grasped or contained, said above all of God and his nature, sometimes with a dative.[3][1] Lewis and Short also cite it from an Arian quoted in Augustine's letters.[1]

Medieval Latin kept the sense “incomprehensible”[6][7][8] and also used it of what cannot be taken in or received by something: Gerhoh of Reichersberg writes that the eternity and immensity of the divine nature cannot be received by human nature.[9]

Timeline

  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in a sermon.[2][5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. That cannot be grasped or contained; incomprehensible, said especially of God.[3][1][2][6]
  2. (Medieval Latin) That cannot be received or taken in (by something).[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften