Etymologically
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inopia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈnɔ.pi.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈnɔː.pi.a][1]

Forms

inopia f (genitive inopiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin inops (“poor, helpless”) + -ia, like cōpia (“abundance”).[2][3][1] inops is in- (“not”) and ops (“power, resources”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *opi- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- (“ability, force”), cognate with Hittite happina- (“rich”) and Sanskrit अप्नस् (ápnas, “property”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] who has sordidō vītam oblectābās pāne in pannīs inopiā, “you got through life on coarse bread, in rags, in want”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Inopia is “lack of means, poverty, destitution” (Terence: to reduce a father to poverty by his son's misconduct), “dearth” of provisions, and “helplessness” (Plautus: ferte opem inopiae, “help the helpless”).[2][6][1] With a genitive it is a shortage of something, money, men or ideas (Plautus: amōre pereō et inopiā argentāriā, “I'm dying of love and lack of cash”, Cicero: inopia argūmentōrum).[2][6] Cicero also uses it of a poverty of vocabulary, which makes metaphor necessary, and of a meagre style.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “want, need, poverty”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: pāne in pannīs inopiā.[2][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: ad inopiam redigat patrem.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: inopia argūmentōrum.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. poverty, want, destitution.[2][6][1][7]
  2. scarcity, dearth (of provisions).[2][6][1]
  3. Helplessness.[2][1]
  4. A shortage, lack (of something).[2][6]
  5. Poverty of language or style.[2]

Word family

  • inopiōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e 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