Etymologically
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innumerabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.nʊ.mɛˈraː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.nu.meˈraː.bi.lis][1]

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

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