Etymologically
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indotatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.doːˈtaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.doˈtaː.tus][1]

Forms

indōtātus (feminine indōtāta, neuter indōtātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + dōtātus (“provided with a dowry”), the participle of dōtō (“to endow”).[2][1][3] De Vaan lists dōs (“dowry”) and its derivatives under dō (“to give”), tracing the noun to Proto-Italic *dōt- (“endowment”), a noun formed on Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek δώς (dṓs, “gift”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus:[3][5] in the Aulularia a speaker proposes that men should take home wives without a dowry, indōtātās dūcant uxōrēs domum.[3]

Semantic evolution

It was used chiefly of women, girls or sisters without a dowry, as in Terence and Horace,[6][5] and Terence also uses the plural as a noun, women without dowries.[7][5] Of marriages it meant those in which the wife brought no dowry: Valerius Maximus says that the senate, by its generosity, saved Scipio's daughters from such marriages.[2]

Ovid uses it poetically of bodies heaped on pyres without the usual gifts to the dead.[6][5] Cicero uses it figuratively of a science that was undowered and unadorned until someone enriched it with the dowry of words.[6][5] Lewis and Short note that the classical writers have only the figurative use.[6]

In Medieval Latin it also meant not assigned as a dowry,[8] and in British sources a church that was not endowed.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of wives without a dowry.[3][10]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of girls without a dowry.[6][10]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively of an unadorned science.[6][10]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of bodies burned without gifts.[6][10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of a woman, without a dowry.[2][6]
  2. Of a marriage, in which the wife brings no dowry.[2]
  3. (poetic) Of the dead, without the usual funeral gifts.[6][5]
  4. (figurative) Unadorned, poor.[6][5]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Not assigned as a dowry; of a church, not endowed.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b 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 e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b 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
  10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de