insatiabilis

Forms

īnsatiābilis (neuter īnsatiābile, adverb insatiābiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from in- (“not”), satiō (“to satisfy”) and the suffix -bilis.^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives that verb from the family of satis (“enough”), going back to Proto-Italic *sati- (“satiation”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂-ti- (“satisfaction, satiation”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius, Köbler from Cicero;^[4][5] Cicero writes of an insatiable desire and of a man who indulged his insatiable cruelty.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

It means that cannot be satisfied, insatiable, of desires, cruelty, joy and the human mind in Cicero and Livy, and of a wish to gain in Juvenal.^[6][2] Of animals it is ravenous: Ovid's Ibis has the body of an enemy fought over by ravenous wolves.^[2] It also means never cloying, that one cannot have enough of: Cicero praises the earth clothed in flowers, grasses and trees with a variety one never tires of.^[2] Church Latin glosses it insatiable, ambitious.^[7] English insatiable dates from the early 15th century, from Old French or directly from the Latin.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of insatiable cruelty and of never-cloying variety.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of ravenous wolves.^[2]
• early 15th century – English insatiable.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be satisfied, insatiable; ravenous, voracious.^[2][6][1][7]
2. That one cannot have enough of, never cloying.^[2]

Word family

• insatiabilitas

Related words

• satis
• satiō
• satietās

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com