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incompositus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word incompositus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
70–19 BC, Virgil
Ultimate origin
Latin (pōnō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin compositus
Latin incompositus

Forms

incompositus (feminine incomposita, neuter incompositum, adverb incompositē); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inconpositus.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + compositus (“put together, orderly”).[2][3][1] The adjective is the perfect participle of compōnō (“to put together”), a compound of com- and pōnō (“to put”).[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Virgil, Horace and Livy on.[3] In the Georgics a countryman, his temples wreathed in oak, makes clumsy movements in honour of Ceres: det motus incompositos.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is badly put together or ill arranged, and above all of speech and verse:[2] Horace says Lucilius' verses run on an irregular foot, and Quintilian calls Aeschylus rough and unpolished in most things.[4][3] Seneca uses it in a good sense: a speech devoted to truth should be artless and simple.[2][3] Of troops it means not in formation, as in Livy's column marching in disorder.[2][4] Pliny the Younger has a gymnasium that is badly laid out.[2]

In later Latin it also meant not compound, simple, as in Ambrose and Boethius.[4][5] Medieval Latin used it for what is imperfect or unfinished and for undisciplined or dissolute people,[5] and in the laws for a person for whose death no wergild is paid.[5]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of clumsy dance movements.[2][3][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of Lucilius' irregular verse.[4][3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a column of troops out of formation.[2][4][6]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of rough and unpolished style.[4][6]
  • 769–813 – Frankish capitularies use it.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Badly put together, ill arranged, irregular, especially of speech or writing.[2][4][1]
  2. Of movements: clumsy, awkward.[2][1]
  3. Unaffected, artless.[2]
  4. Of troops: not in formation, disorderly.[2][4]
  5. (Late Latin) Not compound, simple.[4][5]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Imperfect, unfinished; of persons, undisciplined.[5]
  7. (Medieval Latin, law) Of a person for whose death no wergild is paid.[5]

Usage notes

The adverb incompositē, without order, is used by Livy and of speech by Quintilian.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Incompositus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/incompositus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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