initus

Forms

initus m (genitive initūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ineō (“to go in, enter”) + -tus,^[2][1] an action noun of the fourth declension.^[2][3] The verb is a compound of in- and eō¹ (“to go”),^[1] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Lucretius,^[5] who uses it of the arrival of the goddess, which the birds announce,^[3] and of the beginning of motion.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its senses are “entry, approach” and “beginning”.^[2][3] Ovid and Pliny the Elder use it of the mounting or covering of a female animal: Pliny says that a horse cannot bear fifteen coverings in the same year.^[2][3] Gellius quotes it in a figurative sense, of entering the feelings.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of an arrival and of the start of motion.^[2][3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of mating.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the covering of animals.^[2][3][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius quotes it in a figurative sense.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Entry, approach, arrival.^[2][3]
2. Beginning, commencement.^[2][3]
3. The covering or mounting of a female animal.^[2][3]

Usage notes

The same form is the perfect participle of ineō, “entered upon, begun”.^[3][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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson