Etymologically
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ingratus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋˈɡraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iŋˈɡraː.tus][1]

Forms

ingrātus (feminine ingrāta, neuter ingrātum, superlative ingrātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1] The comparative and superlative are found from Cicero on.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + grātus (“pleasing, grateful”), “not grateful, not pleasing”.[3][4][2][1] De Vaan derives grātus from Proto-Italic *gʷrāto-, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H-to- (“praised (in a song)”), and compares Oscan brateis (“of grace”) and Sanskrit गृणाति (gṛṇā́ti, “to praise”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] who has nihil amās quom ingrātum amās, “you love nothing when you love an ungrateful man”, and bene quae in mē fēcērunt, ingrāta ea habuī atque inrita, “the kindness they did me I treated as unwelcome and worthless”.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Ingrātus is “ungrateful, thankless, unappreciative” of persons, and of services “not appreciated, unthanked”.[3][4][1] Of things it is “unwelcome, displeasing, unpopular” to someone, and objectively “disagreeable, unpleasant” to the mind or senses.[3][4][1] Wiktionary also gives “fruitless, unsuccessful”.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “unpleasant, disagreeable, ungrateful, thankless”.[6] In Medieval Latin it can mean “stern, hostile” and “unwilling, restive”.[7] English ingrate was an adjective in the 14th century and a noun “ungrateful person” from the 1670s.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nihil amās quom ingrātum amās.[3][9]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of an ungrateful person.[3][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: illud … est hominis ingrātī tacēre, “to keep silent is the mark of an ungrateful man”.[3][9]
  • 1670s – English ingrate as a noun.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. ungrateful, thankless, unappreciative.[3][4][1][6]
  2. Unthanked, not appreciated (of services).[3][1]
  3. Unwelcome, displeasing, unpopular.[3][4]
  4. disagreeable, unpleasant.[3][4][1][6]
  5. Fruitless, unsuccessful.[1]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Hostile; unwilling.[7]

Word family

  • ingrātia
  • ingrātitūdō
  • peringrātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de