Etymologically
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inefficax

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈnɛf.fɪ.kaːks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈnɛf.fi.kaks][1]

Forms

inefficāx (genitive inefficācis); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + efficāx (“effective”).[2][3][1] The adjective efficāx goes back to ex- and faciō (“to make, do”),[4][1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *fak-i- and to Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), from *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Seneca's philosophical works on;[3][4] in the De ira he speaks of a voice that cannot produce words (vox inefficax verborum).[6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan.[6] It means achieving nothing, ineffectual or useless: Seneca applies it to reasoning and to the gods.[2][6] Pliny the Elder uses the comparative of remedies that are less potent than others,[2] and the jurists Africanus and Ulpian use it of a legacy or a decision that is invalid.[2] An inscription has the superlative of very weak parents.[6] The adverb inefficāciter, “ineffectually”, appears in the Digest, the Code of Justinian and Symmachus.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means ineffective or inefficient.[7] Köbler lists medieval uses, among them Albertus Magnus.[4]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a voice and of reasoning that achieve nothing.[6][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of weak remedies.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Achieving nothing, ineffectual, useless, unavailing.[2][6]
  2. Of remedies, not potent, not efficacious.[2]
  3. (law) Invalid, inoperative.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson