indomabilis

Forms

indomābilis (neuter indomābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + domābilis (“tameable”).^[1][3][4] The base comes from domō (“to tame”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *domaje- and Proto-Indo-European *domh₂-eie/o- (“to tame”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus (c. 250–184 BC)^[4] has it in the Casina: edepol ne tu, si equos esses, esses indomabilis, “by Pollux, if you were a horse, you would be untameable”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare in Classical Latin.^[3][2] Late writers apply it to animals (the bulls of Colchis in the Vatican Mythographers, the fox in Jerome, a calf in the fables of Romulus),^[3] and then to people: Porphyrio's commentary on Horace, Prudentius praising the steadfastness of a Christian martyr, and the Vulgate's sons “of hard face and stubborn heart” (indomabili corde, Ezekiel 2:4).^[3] Cassiodorus compares the flesh to an untameable beast.^[3] Köbler finds it also in medieval charters, in Notker's Gesta Karoli and in Widukind.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an untameable horse.^[3][4]
• second half of the 2nd century AD – Porphyrio uses it of a person grown hard with age.^[3][4]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it in praise of a martyr.^[3][4]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of the fox.^[3][4]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus compares the flesh to an untameable beast.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be tamed or broken in, untameable.^[1][2]
2. (Late Latin) Of people, unyielding, stubborn; in praise, steadfast.^[3]
3. (Late Latin) Of the heart or the tongue, that cannot be controlled.^[3]

Related words

• indomitus
• domō

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill