Etymologically
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inops

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪ.nɔps][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiː.nops][1]

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

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