indefensus

Forms

indēfēnsus (feminine indēfēnsa, neuter indēfēnsum, adverb indēfēnsē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + dēfēnsus (“defended”),^[2][1][3] the past participle of dēfendō (“to ward off, defend”).^[2] That verb contains -fendō, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen-dʰ- (“to hit, strike”) or to an imperative *gʷʰn̥dʰí (“strike!”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livy has it first,^[5] of soldiers left defenceless and unavenged against the enemy's weapons, and of Capua deserted and undefended.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short think it perhaps not used before Augustus.^[6] Besides military defencelessness, it is used of a harbour in Frontinus and, in Pliny the Elder, of millet that birds can eat because it is enclosed only in a skin.^[2] In law it means not defended against a charge or claim: Tacitus speaks of people who perished unheard and undefended, and the jurist Paulus of a right left undefended.^[2][6] Late Latin has the adverb indēfēnsē.^[6]

In medieval British sources it also means unclaimed or not warranted (of rights to land) and, of land, not enclosed.^[7]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of soldiers and of a town left undefended.^[2][6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of unprotected millet.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of people condemned unheard and undefended.^[2][6][5]
• 1301 – An English royal letter uses it of rights left unclaimed.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not protected against attack, defenceless, undefended.^[2][6]
2. (law) Not defended against an accusation or claim.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of rights: unclaimed, not warranted; of land: not enclosed.^[7]

Related words

• dēfendō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press