Etymologically
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incassum

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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]

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