Etymologically
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infensus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈfẽː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱˈfɛn.sus][1]

Forms

īnfēnsus (feminine īnfēnsa, neuter īnfēnsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed like the past participle of a verb ⟨*īnfendō⟩, “to strike into, attack”, from in- and the ⟨-fendō⟩ “strike” of dēfendō (“to ward off”) and offendō (“to strike against”); the OLD takes its first sense to be “rushing against”.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨-fendō⟩ to Proto-Italic *χʷend- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“to hit, strike, kill”), the root of Sanskrit हन्ति (hánti, “kills”), Ancient Greek θείνω (theínō, “to strike”), Hittite kuenzi (“kills”) and Old Irish gonaid (“wounds, kills”).[3][4] Wiktionary notes that it is not related to īnfestus (“hostile”), despite the likeness.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Plautus as its first author.[3][5] In Terence's Andria a slave fears his bitterly hostile master: mē īnfēnsus servat.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of troops it is ready for the attack, as Sallust's Numidians pressing on, and of weapons threatening, as the ash spear in Accius.[2] It is relentless in enmity, of persons, and of things harmful to someone's interests (Tacitus).[2] Livy's king is savagely angry and frightened at once.[2] Lewis and Short call it classical and compare īnfestus.[6]

Church Latin glosses it “hostile, dangerous”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[3][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a bitterly hostile master.[2][5]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a threatening spear.[2][5]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of troops attacking.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a furious king.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Aggressive, ready to attack; threatening.[2][1]
  2. Bitterly hostile, inimical;[2][1][7] (of things) harmful, adverse.[2][1][7]
  3. Furious, enraged.[2][1]

Word family

  • īnfēnsō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson