Etymologically
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infrequentia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩː.frɛˈkʷɛn.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱ.freˈkʷɛn.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

īnfrequentia f (genitive īnfrequentiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin īnfrequēns (“not crowded, few in number”) + -ia.[2][3][4] The adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and frequēns (“crowded”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in a letter of Cicero to his brother Quintus, which reports that Gabinius slipped in when the senate was very thinly attended.[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Livy uses it of a senate too thin for business to be done,[6][3][7] and of the people absent from an election.[3] Tacitus has it of a shortage of soldiers and of the depopulation of a region,[2][7][4] and Columella also of depopulation.[7]

In British medieval Latin it kept the sense of a deserted condition, and also meant the infrequent occurrence of something.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a thinly attended senate.[3][9]
  • 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of the senate and of the people.[3][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of depopulation.[7][9]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a deserted region.[4][7][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Small attendance, paucity of people, especially of senators below the number needed for business.[2][6][7]
  2. Depopulated condition of a place, solitude.[2][4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Infrequent occurrence, rarity.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b 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
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de