Etymologically
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inclementia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋ.kɫeːˈmɛn.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iŋ.kleˈmɛn.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

inclēmentia f (genitive inclēmentiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin inclēmēns + -ia,[2][1][3] from inclēmēns (“harsh, merciless”), the negative of clēmēns (“mild, merciful”).[1] The origin of clēmēns itself is uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil is the first to use it: in the Aeneid it is the “harshness of the gods” that overturns hās opēs, “this power”, and in the Georgics he speaks of the harshness of cruel death.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of poetry and post-classical prose:[5] the hexameter poets use it from Virgil on, and in prose it appears from Tacitus.[3] Tacitus uses it of severity towards the accused,[6][8] and later writers of the harshness of fate, of the sea, and of the climate, inclēmentia caelī.[5][8] It continued in medieval Latin,[7] and Italian has it as inclemenza.[6]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the gods and of death.[5][7]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius speaks of the harshness of fate.[5][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of severity towards defendants.[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Harshness, severity, lack of mercy.[2][5]
  2. Roughness of weather or climate.[5][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn