infrequens

Forms

īnfrequēns (genitive īnfrequentis, adverb īnfrequenter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + frequēns (“crowded, frequent”).^[2][1] The origin of frequēns itself is uncertain: de Vaan finds Nussbaum's connection with fraxō semantically attractive, while others connect it with farciō (“to stuff”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance is in Plautus' Truculentus, where a courtesan should send home a lover who gives her nothing, like a soldier struck off as absent without leave.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of men failing to attend: a soldier absent without leave, a worshipper who seldom attends the gods (in Horace), a friend who rarely calls.^[2] Cicero and Livy used it of bodies and places with few people present: a senate called together with few members, a forum or street with few people, a thinly built part of a town, a legion below strength.^[2][6] Varro and Gellius applied it to rare and unusual words.^[2]

British medieval writers used it of a thinly peopled town and of things that seldom occur.^[7] Its descendants include infréquent and infrequente.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a lover dismissed like an absent soldier.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of a senate called together with few members.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of an infrequent worshipper of the gods.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of uncommon words.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a place or gathering: with few people present, not crowded; thinly populated.^[2][6]
2. Of a body of men: below strength, not fully manned; present only in small numbers.^[2][6]
3. Not regular in attendance;^[2][4] (military) absent without leave.^[2][4]
4. Of words and the like: uncommon, infrequent, unusual.^[2][4]

Word family

• īnfrequentia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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