incomprehensibilis

Forms

incomprehēnsibilis (neuter incomprehēnsibile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled incomprēnsibilis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + comprehēnsibilis (“that can be grasped”).^[2][1][3] The TLL compares Ancient Greek ἀκατάληπτος (akatálēptos).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus, in the preface to his work on medicine, calls nature uncertain and incomprehensible.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Seneca uses it of the ungraspable nature of life and of the boundless sway of bad custom.^[2][4] In the literal sense, “that cannot be seized”, Columella has it of the smallness of grains of sand and Solinus of the elk's flight, which cannot be overtaken;^[4][6] Pliny the Younger, with the image of a wrestler, calls a speaker slippery and impossible to pin down in debate.^[4]

Tertullian uses the neuter as a noun, opposed to comprehensibile;^[4][6] the adverb incomprehēnsibiliter appears in Jerome, Ambrose and Hilary.^[4] Medieval Latin added the senses “that cannot be felt or touched”.^[7] English incomprehensible was used first of God and his attributes.^[8]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus calls nature incomprehensible.^[2][4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of what cannot be grasped or measured.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella speaks of the imperceptible smallness of sand.^[4][6][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the neuter as a noun, opposed to the comprehensible.^[4][5]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as incomprehensible.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be seized, held or overtaken; elusive.^[2][4]
2. That cannot be measured, immeasurable, limitless.^[2]
3. That cannot be grasped by the mind, incomprehensible, unintelligible.^[2][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) That cannot be felt or touched.^[7]

Word family

• incomprehēnsibiliter

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com