incurabilis

Forms

incūrābilis (neuter incūrābile, adverb incūrābiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in-² (“not”) + cūrābilis (“curable”).^[2][3][4] The glossaries render it with Ancient Greek ἀθεράπευτος (atherápeutos).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to the TLL it appears from Vegetius and the veterinary treatise of Chiron on, above all in the medical writers;^[2] Chiron is of the 4th century,^[3] and there it is used of a disease that cannot be cured.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Theodorus Priscianus and Caelius Aurelianus use it of incurable illnesses,^[5][3] and Cassiodorus has it in his Church history.^[7][8] In medieval Latin it kept the medical sense and was extended to people who could not be reformed, to what could not be atoned for, quenched, avoided or replaced.^[9]

English took it in the mid-14th century through Old French incurable.^[4]

Timeline

• 4th century AD – Chiron's veterinary treatise uses it of a disease.^[2][3]
• c. 400 AD – Theodorus Priscianus uses it.^[5][3]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it in his works on acute and chronic diseases.^[5][3]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it.^[7][3]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as incurable.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Incurable, beyond remedy.^{[7][2][10][11][1]}
2. (Medieval Latin) Incorrigible.^[9]
3. (Medieval Latin) That cannot be made good, atoned for or replaced.^[9]

Related words

• English incurable

Usage notes

The TLL gives insanabilis as its equivalent.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill