inhabito

Forms

inhabitō (present infinitive inhabitāre, perfect active inhabitāvī, supine inhabitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in”) + habitō (“to dwell”),^[2][1][3] and that verb is a frequentative of habeō (“to have, hold”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Seneca's letters, Columella, Petronius and Pliny the Elder on.^[3] Seneca writes of laying down istuc corpus inhabitātum diū, “this body you have lived in so long”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as a post-Augustan word for habitō and incolō,^[6] and the TLL notes that poets avoid it, except Juvencus.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of peoples living in woodlands and of regions with few inhabitants,^[2] and Petronius of a noble land.^[6][5] The present participle served as a noun for the inhabitants of a house: Pliny the Younger tells of a house whose inhabitants spent dreadful sleepless nights,^[2][6] and the jurists say that most fires are the fault of the occupants.^[2] Apuleius uses it without an object, with a dative or a preposition.^[2][7] Tertullian applied it to clothes, in the sense to wear.^[6][7]

The Vulgate uses it of dwelling in a spiritual sense: ut inhabitet in mē virtūs Chrīstī, “that the power of Christ may dwell in me”,^[5] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means to dwell or abide.^[8] Cassiodorus explains it as said of people who never leave the place they have reached.^[3] English took the verb inhabit from Old French in the late 14th century.^[9]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the soul living in the body.^[2][10]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of a country.^[6][10]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of peoples and regions.^[2][10]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of wearing clothes.^[6][10]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of Christ's power dwelling in a person.^[5][10]
• late 14th century – English borrows inhabit through Old French.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inhabit, occupy, dwell in (a place); present participle as a noun, inhabitantēs, the inhabitants.^[2][6][5]
2. To dwell (without an object, with a dative or a preposition).^[2][5][7]
3. (Late Latin) To wear (clothes).^[6][7]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To dwell, abide.^[8][5]

Word family

• inhabitātiō
• inhabitātor
• inhabitāculum

Related words

• habitō
• habeō
• English inhabit

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de