incuria

Forms

incūria f (genitive incūriae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + cūra (“care”) + -ia;^[2][3][4] the TLL takes it as formed on the model of iniūria.^[3] De Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *kwois-ā- (“care, watch”) and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *kwei-s- (“to heed”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato.^[5] Cicero writes of soldiers of the Roman people destroyed by neglect, hunger, disease and devastation.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is want of care or attention: neglect, carelessness, indifference.^[2][6] Cicero speaks of neglect of something most necessary, and Horace of the blots that carelessness lets fall.^[6] Tacitus uses it often.^[6] Festus and Porphyrio gloss it as neglegentia, care that has no care.^[3] Church Latin keeps the senses neglect, carelessness, indifference.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato.^[5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of neglect of soldiers.^[6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the faults carelessness lets fall.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Want of care, neglect, carelessness, negligence, indifference.^[2][6][1][7]

Related words

• cūra
• incūriōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson