Etymologically
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ingenuitas

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Forms

ingenuitās f (genitive ingenuitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ingenuus (“freeborn; noble”) + -tās.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on;[3] in the Verrines he speaks of stripping a ward of the marks of her free birth, ōrnāmenta ingenuitātis.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it of the character fitting a free person, a frank and honourable bearing, as of an orator who avoids coarse words.[2][5] The TLL finds it in Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian, Tacitus, Suetonius and the jurists, but in poetry only in Publilius Syrus.[3] Suetonius writes of a man declared freeborn, assertus in ingenuitātem, and Tacitus says that eloquence is now taught almost without nobility of mind.[4][2] In medieval Latin it is the status of a free person, as in the Salic law,[6][7] also the status of a freedman, the act of manumission and the deed that records it.[8][6] English ingenuity comes from it, first meaning nobility; it was later confused with ingenious.[9]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of free birth and of a noble character.[2][4][10]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius writes of a man declared freeborn.[4][10]
  • 1590s – English ingenuity is recorded in the sense “honour, nobility”.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The status of a freeborn person, free birth.[2][4]
  2. The character fitting a freeborn person; nobility of mind, frankness, modesty.[2][4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The status of a freedman; manumission; a deed of manumission.[8][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de