Etymologically
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inemptus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈneːmp.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈnɛmp.tus][1]

Forms

inēmptus (feminine inēmpta, neuter inēmptum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + ēmptus, from the negative prefix and ēmptus (“bought”), the past participle of emō (“to buy”).[2][3][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *eme/o-, Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-e/o- (“to take”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Virgil,[3] who in the Georgics describes an old man who loaded his table with food he had not bought.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a word of poetry and post-Augustan prose:[5] Horace has it of food that costs nothing, Ovid in the Metamorphoses,[5][6] and Tacitus uses it figuratively, of a consulship not bought.[5][7] In the lawyers it has a technical sense, of a thing treated as never bought when a condition of the sale is fulfilled.[2][6]

Medieval writers used it of things not bought or not paid for and, in charters, of things not for sale.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of food not bought.[2][3][10]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a feast that costs nothing.[5][10]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.[6][10]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a consulship not bought.[5][10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not bought, unpurchased; obtained for nothing.[2][5][7]
  2. (law) Regarded as never bought (of a thing returned after a sale).[2][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Not for sale.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ 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