indignans

Forms

indignāns (genitive indignantis); third-declension one-termination adjective; superlative indignantissimus^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin indignor (“to be indignant, resent”).^[1][2][3] That verb is formed from indignus (“unworthy”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid (43 BC–18 AD) uses it of an angry mouth and of words: talibus inde modis ora indignantia solvit (Metamorphoses 1.181), “then he opened his indignant lips with words like these”.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

Columella uses the superlative with a genitive, of a kind of fish most impatient of captivity.^[1] It is listed in the Ecclesiastical Latin dictionary as angry or indignant,^[5] and in medieval Latin it could also describe things as unworthy.^[6]

English indignant (1580s) comes from it.^[3]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[1][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the superlative with a genitive.^[1][4]
• 1580s – English borrows it as indignant.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of righteous anger, indignant.^[1][5]
2. With a genitive: resentful of, impatient of.^[1]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of things: unworthy.^[6]

Related words

• English indignant

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill