innumerabilis

Forms

innumerābilis (neuter innumerābile, adverb innumerābiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + numerābilis (“countable”).^[2][1][3] ⟨Numerābilis⟩ comes from numerō (“to count”), from numerus (“number”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *nomeso- and the root Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to apportion”) of Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to distribute”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.^[5] Cicero passes over other things that are innumerābilia, countless.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is countless, with plurals, as Cicero's countless worlds and atoms and the shouts of numberless citizens, and with nouns of quantity, as innumerābilis pecūnia, a vast sum of money, or an untold weight of gold.^[2][6] Lewis and Short call it classical.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “countless, innumerable, numberless”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of countless worlds, citizens and sums.^[2][6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Countless, innumerable, numberless.^[2][1][7]

Word family

• innumerābilitās

Related words

• numerus
• numerō
• innumerus

Usage notes

Döderlein calls innumerus a poetic and choice word, innumerābilis the usual prose word.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper