Etymologically
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indefensus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.deːˈfẽː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.deˈfɛn.sus][1]

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]

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