insanabilis

Forms

īnsānābilis (neuter īnsānābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + sānābilis (“curable”),^[2][3] from sānō (“to heal”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who speaks of an incurable disease in the Tusculan Disputations.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is said of diseases and wounds that cannot be cured, as Columella's wound or Pliny the Elder's poison.^[2][5] Horace extends it to faults of mind, a head incurable even by three Anticyras, and Livy to a character.^[2][5] Of harm or grief it is irreparable: Cicero says an orator will avoid incurable insults.^[2][5] The comparative is in Livy and Augustine, the superlative is lacking.^[3] Augustine explains that a sick man with hope is called sānābilis, one with despair īnsānābilis.^[3] Church Latin glosses it incurable.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an incurable disease.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of an incurable head.^[2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a character.^[5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Incurable; of faults, past remedy.^[2][5][1][6]
2. Irreparable, irremediable, hopeless.^[2][5]

Related words

• sānābilis
• sānō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson