Etymologically
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inconstantia

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Forms

incōnstantia f (genitive incōnstantiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incōnstāns (“inconstant”) + -ia.[2][3][4] incōnstāns is the negative of cōnstāns (“steady”), from cōnstō (“to stand firm”), a compound of stō (“to stand”).[5][6] De Vaan traces stō to Proto-Italic *sta-ē-je/o- (“to stand”) and Proto-Indo-European *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o- (“to stand”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-, comparing Oscan staít (“stands”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD find it first in Cicero, who speaks of the opinions of the crowd, caught in the greatest inconstancy through ignorance of the truth.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Of people it is fickleness and changeableness of mind: Cicero asks what is more disgraceful for a man or for the senate than inconstancy and levity, and writes that no learned man ever called a change of plan inconstancy.[3][2] It is also inconsistency in statements or opinions, as when he cannot wonder enough at the inconsistency of certain philosophers.[2] Of things it is changeableness or instability: Pliny the Elder uses it of the flickering sheen of a gem, and Quintilian of a restless brow and eyes.[2][3] Church Latin glosses it inconstancy, fickleness and wandering.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of popular opinions and of fickle men.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a flickering sheen.[3][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of restless features.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Changeableness, instability, uncertainty; of light, flickering.[2][3]
  2. Of people, inconstancy, fickleness.[2][3][7][1]
  3. Inconsistency in statement or opinion.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson