Etymologically
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ingenero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋˈɡɛ.nɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in̠ʲˈd͡ʒɛː.ne.ro][1]

Forms

ingenerō (present infinitive ingenerāre, perfect active ingenerāvī, supine ingenerātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in”) + generō (“to beget, produce”),[2][3][1] and that verb is formed from genus (“birth, race, kind”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os, from the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero, Catullus and Livy on.[3] Cicero writes that nature implants in living beings a love for their offspring, and speaks of a thrift inborn in a family (ingenerāta familiae frūgālitās).[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense was to implant a quality or feeling: Cicero has the soul engendered by a god and physical defects implanted by a star,[4][2] Livy a fellowship that nature has created,[2][5] and Curtius a keenness for hunting that nature gave to hounds.[2][6] Pliny the Elder asks where nature put the fierce voice of the gnat.[2][3] In Catullus it means to renew a family by begetting children,[6][5] and Columella uses it absolutely for planting.[2][4]

Christian writers kept it: Ambrose speaks of forms of things implanted from the beginning.[3] It lives on in French engendrer, Old Occitan engenrar and Catalan engendrar.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of feelings and qualities implanted by nature.[4][7]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of renewing a family by children.[6][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of a fellowship engendered by nature.[2][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of planting.[2][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the gnat's voice.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To engender, produce (children) in a family.[2][5]
  2. To plant (vegetables).[2][4]
  3. (figurative) To implant, instil (qualities, feelings); ingenerātus, inborn.[2][4][6]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de