Etymologically
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insanabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩː.saːˈnaː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.saˈnaː.bi.lis][1]

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]

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