incassum

Forms

incassum (not comparable)^[1] It is often written as two words, in cassum;^[2][3] Tertullian has plain cassum.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin in (“into”) + cassus (“empty”), from the phrase ⟨in cassum⟩, “into the empty”.^[2][1][5] Wiktionary connects cassus with careō (“to lack”) and castus (“pure”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has ex multis omnia in cassum cadunt, “out of many, all fall in vain”.^[3] Köbler dates it from Sallust.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means without effect, to no purpose, in vain.^[2][3] Lucretius joins it with “at random” and “uselessly”, and Virgil has raging in vain, long tears shed in vain, and labours poured out in vain.^[3] In prose Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, Seneca and Justin use it: Livy has weapons thrown in vain and prayers sent in vain.^[3][4] From it late writers formed an adjective incassus, vain, empty.^[6] Church Latin has it as in vain, uselessly.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, in cassum cadunt.^[3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, “aimlessly and in vain”.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of tears shed in vain.^[3][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust, in prose.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In vain, to no purpose, without effect.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• cassus
• frūstrā
• nēquīquam

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson