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insanitas

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word insanitas

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC, Varro
Ultimate origin
Latin īnsānus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin insanus
English insane
Latin insanitas
English insanity

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈsaː.nɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈsaː.ni.tas][1]

Forms

īnsānitās f (genitive īnsānitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin īnsānus (“insane, unsound”) + -itās.[2][3] The adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and sānus (“sound, healthy”),[2] which goes back to Proto-Italic *sāno- and a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *seh2-no- that de Vaan calls purely mechanical.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first to use it, in his Menippean satires, wishing such madness away from his house: “apage in directum a domo nostra istam insanitatem”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means unsoundness, especially of the mind.[2] Cicero sets it against health of the mind, calling folly “quasi insanitas quaedam”, a kind of unsoundness, as wisdom is the mind's health.[6][3] Lewis & Short also give the wider sense of unhealthiness or disease.[6]

English insanity (1580s) comes from it.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of madness.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of folly as the opposite of a sound mind.[6][3][5]
  • 1580s – English borrows it as insanity.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Unsoundness of mind, madness.[2][3]
  2. Unhealthiness, disease.[6][1]

Usage notes

The usual Latin word for madness was īnsānia, with which an ancient gloss equates it.[7][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Insanitas.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/insanitas. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·