inops

Forms

inops (genitive inopis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“not, without”) + ops (“power, means, wealth”).^[2][1] Varro explained it as one “without help”.^[3] De Vaan traces ops to Proto-Italic *opi- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- (“ability, force”), cognate with Hittite happina- (“rich”) and Sanskrit अप्नस् (ápnas-, “possessions”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Trinummus: while he is kind to them, the lover becomes poor himself (inops amātor).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is lacking wealth, poor, destitute, and of a life or a period marked by poverty (Terence).^[2] It is also said of places poor in resources and of meagre means, as Evander's rēs inopēs in Virgil.^[2] The older sense of ops, help, gives “without protection, defenceless” (Terence: help the innocent and helpless), weak, of a fleet without its marines (Cicero), and powerless.^[2] With a genitive it means lacking something, as Cicero's men poor in friends.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “destitute, needy, indigent, afflicted”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a lover made poor.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a helpless man.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a weak fleet and of men without friends.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. poor, destitute, needy.^[2][1][6]
2. Poor in resources; scanty, meagre.^[2]
3. helpless, defenceless; weak.^[2][1]
4. Powerless, ineffectual.^[2]
5. (with genitive) Lacking, devoid (of).^[2][1]

Word family

• inopia

Related words

• ops
• opulentus
• cōpia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson