incommodus

Forms

incommodus (feminine incommoda, neuter incommodum, superlative incommodissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + commodus (“convenient, suitable”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it with commodus under modus “measure”, which he traces to Proto-Italic *medo- (“measure, judgement”) and Proto-Indo-European *med-o- (“measure”), comparing Umbrian meřs (“law”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[4][5] in whom someone is told to answer nicely so that he will not be troublesome.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is troublesome or annoying, and disadvantageous: Cicero speaks of a valuation that is not only no burden to the farmer but welcome.^[2] Terence has an inconvenient journey and Cicero poor health.^[6] It is also unpleasant: Plautus has someone torment another with unpleasant words.^[2] Of people it is disobliging: in the Asinaria a man admits his wife is troublesome and disobliging.^[2] Glosses explain it as fruitless or useless.^[3] In medieval Latin it can mean ill.^[7] Church Latin glosses it inconvenient, unsuitable.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a troublesome person and of unpleasant words.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of an inconvenient journey.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a burden on farmers and of poor health.^[2][6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Troublesome, tiresome, annoying; inconvenient.^[2][6][1][8]
2. Disadvantageous, unfavourable, especially of health.^[2]
3. Unpleasant, disagreeable.^[2][1]
4. Of people, disobliging.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Ill.^[7]

Word family

• comincommodus
• incommodesticus
• incommoditās
• incommodum
• perincommodus

Related words

• commodus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson