innocens

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɪn.nɔ.kẽːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈin.no.t͡ʃens]^[1]

Forms

innocēns (genitive innocentis, comparative innocentior, superlative innocentissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from the negative prefix in- and nocēns “harmful, guilty”, the participle of noceō “to harm”.^[2][1][3] Plautus has the genitive plural ⟨innocentum⟩, Cicero ⟨innocentium⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Naevius, of someone not guilty.^[2] Köbler also starts with Naevius, whom he dates c. 235–200 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant not guilty, blameless, innocent, and in Tacitus innocent of a crime, and also doing no evil, pure, upright, as in Cicero.^[2] Lewis and Short and Gaffiot give the literal sense harmless, inoffensive, of things such as a letter, as in Cicero and Horace, and Pliny uses it of what does no harm.^[4][6][2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant innocent, pure, guiltless, harmless.^[7] Medieval Latin also used it for harmless, ingenuous, naive.^[8] English innocent came in the mid-14th century through Old French.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of the guiltless.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the upright and of a harmless letter.^[2][4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny uses it of what is harmless.^[2][5]
• mid-14th century – English innocent is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not guilty, blameless, innocent.^[2]
2. Doing no evil, upright, virtuous.^[2]
3. Of things, harmless, innocuous.^[2][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) Ingenuous, naive.^[8]

Word family

• innocentia

Related words

• noceō
• īnsōns
• English innocent

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
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