Etymologically
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infectus

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infectus1 not done

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈfɛk.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱˈfɛk.tus][1]

Forms

īnfectus (feminine īnfecta, neuter īnfectum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The adjective “not done” is from Latin in- (“not”) + factus (“done, made”), the participle of faciō (“to do, make”).[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Italic *enfaktos and compares an Umbrian form of the same make-up.[1] De Vaan traces faciō to *fak-i- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), a stem from the aorist of *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Plautus' Mostellaria: “I make my gifts undone”, I take them back.[2] Cato asks what work has been done and what left undone.[4]

Semantic evolution

It means not made or done: of metal, unwrought, as the censors' aes infectum; of actions, not performed; and in law damnum infectum, damage that is feared but has not yet happened.[2][4] Of purposes it means not achieved, chiefly in re infecta, without accomplishing the business, as in Sallust, and infecta pace in Terence;[2] Sallust also uses it of what cannot be done, impossible.[2] It is also unfinished, as Propertius' prize demanded before the race is run, and Varro uses it of the tenses of uncompleted action.[2] Apuleius has it of words not yet coined.[2] Church Latin glosses it undone, unfinished, impossible.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of gifts undone.[2][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of work left undone.[4][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of leaving without making peace.[2][7]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of business not accomplished and of the impossible.[2][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of imperfective tenses.[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of metal, not worked, crude, unwrought.[2][4]
  2. Not done or performed;[2][4][1] damnum infectum, damage apprehended; of a word, not coined.[2][4][1]
  3. Not achieved;[2][6][1] re infecta, without accomplishing the business; impossible.[2][6][1]
  4. Unfinished;[2][1] (grammar) imperfective.[2][1]

infectus2 dyed; a dyeing

Forms

īnfectus m (genitive īnfectūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

The noun “dyeing” is from Latin īnficiō (“to dye, stain”) + -tus, a fourth-declension noun of action; the same form is the participle of that verb, dyed, stained or tainted.[2][4][3][1] The verb is in- (“in”) with faciō (“to make”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder promises to speak of the dyeing of other wools.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun is post-Augustan and rare, found in the ablative in Pliny the Elder.[4] The participle means dyed or stained, and in Church Latin spoiled or infected.[4][6] A late noun of the same form in Oribasius means weakness.[3]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of dyeing wool.[2][7]
  • c. 325–c. 403 AD – Oribasius uses a noun of the same form for weakness.[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The action of dyeing.[2][4][6][1]
  2. (Late Latin) Weakness, debility.[3]

Participle

  1. Dyed, stained; spoiled, infected.[4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de