Etymologically
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inhumanus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪ.nuːˈmaː.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [i.nuˈmaː.nus][1]

Forms

inhūmānus (feminine inhūmāna, neuter inhūmānum, comparative inhūmānior, superlative inhūmānissimus, adverb inhūmāniter); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative prefix in- (“not”) and hūmānus (“human”).[2][3] De Vaan derives ⟨hūmānus⟩ from homō (“human being”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *χem-ō and Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰ(e)m-ōn (“earthling, human”), from the word for “earth”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Terence,[3] where a young man asks whether he is thought so ungrateful, heartless or savage.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is devoid of human feeling, heartless or brutal, of people and of actions, as Cicero's will that was not inhuman.[2][5] In Cicero it is also uncultured or uncivilized, as ears so uncultivated and rustic, and lacking the manners of civilized people, churlish or ill-bred, as his old men who are neither difficult nor churlish.[2][1] Apuleius uses it in a good sense, superhuman or divine, of the banquet set before Psyche.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “brutal, inhuman”.[6]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a heartless young man.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of uncultured ears and churlish old men.[2][3]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of a superhuman banquet.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Uncultured, uncivilized.[2]
  2. Discourteous, churlish, ill-bred.[2][1]
  3. Devoid of human feeling, heartless, inhuman, savage.[2][5][1][6]
  4. Superhuman, divine.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson