Etymologically
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incertus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɪŋˈkɛr.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [in̠ʲˈt͡ʃɛr.tus][1]

Forms

incertus (feminine incerta, neuter incertum, comparative incertior, superlative incertissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1] Pacuvius has an archaic genitive plural incertum.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + certus (“fixed, certain”).[2][3][4][1] The TLL compares Ancient Greek ἄκριτος (ákritos, “undecided”).[4] De Vaan explains certus as the old past participle of cernō “to distinguish”, from Proto-Italic *krito-, from Proto-Indo-European *kri-tó- (“sifted”), like Ancient Greek κριτός (kritós, “chosen”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] who has eccum quī ex incertō faciet mihi quod quaerō certius, “here is the man who will make what I am looking for certain instead of uncertain”.[2] Köbler cites it from Ennius.[6]

Semantic evolution

Incertus is first “not fixed, not determined” (of fevers, without a regular cycle), “not specified” (in incertum, “for an indefinite time”), and of battles “undecided”.[2][3] It means “not sure to happen”, “not dependable, unsafe”, “not clearly known, doubtful” and “unknown” (Plautus: in incertās regiōnēs, “into unknown regions”).[2][1] Of persons it is “unable to decide, hesitant, irresolute” and “unsure, doubting”;[2][1] incertum est mihi is “I cannot make up my mind”.[2][1] As a noun incertum is uncertainty.[1][7]

Church Latin glosses it “uncertain, hidden, doubtful, vague, undecided, hesitating, irresolute”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ex incertō … certius;[2][6] in incertās regiōnēs.[2][6]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius has the genitive plural incertum.[2][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: quae nunc sunt certa cōnsilia, incerta ut sient, “so that plans now fixed become unsettled”.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: iūdicium est pecūniae certae, arbitrium incertae, “a trial is for a fixed sum, an arbitration for an unfixed one”.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not fixed, not determined; not specified.[2][3]
  2. Undecided (of battles and disputes).[2]
  3. Not sure to happen; not dependable.[2]
  4. uncertain, doubtful, unknown, obscure.[2][3][1][7]
  5. (of persons) Hesitant, irresolute; unsure.[2][1][7]

Noun

  1. (incertum) Uncertainty.[1][7]

Word family

  • incertum
  • perincertus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson