inflexibilis

Forms

īnflexibilis (neuter īnflexibile); third-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + flexibilis (“easily bent, flexible”).^[3][4][5] The adjective flexibilis is formed from flectō (“to bend”).^[6] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as Proto-Italic *flek-t-, perhaps with a /t/ added on the model of plectō¹ (“to plait”); none of the possible roots has obvious Indo-European cognates.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Seneca (4 BC–65 AD),^[7] who writes in his letters of an unbending endurance of pain (dolorum inflexibilem patientiam).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it literally, of bark that cannot be bent once it has been stripped, and of a cramp of the neck, which Lewis & Short identify as lockjaw.^[3][8] Seneca also speaks of doctrines that give minds an unchangeable judgement,^[3][8] and Pliny the Elder of a hard, inflexible sternness of nature.^[3] Pliny the Younger, in a letter, writes of an inflexible obstinacy.^[3][8] The medical writer Caelius Aurelianus has it too.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of unbending endurance and of an unchangeable judgement.^[3][8][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of rigid bark and of a cramp of the neck.^[3][8][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be bent, rigid.^[3][8][2]
2. (figurative) Unbending in temper or purpose, stubborn, inflexible; unchangeable.^[3][8]

References

1. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press