insolentia

Forms

īnsolentia f (genitive īnsolentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin īnsolēns (“unaccustomed; immoderate”) + -ia.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists ⟨īnsolēns⟩ under soleō (“to be accustomed”), whose origin he calls disputed; he favours Proto-Italic *sol-ē- (“to occupy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sol-eh₁- (“to occupy, inhabit”), as in Old Church Slavonic село (selo, “land, village”) and Old High German sal (“home, room”), so that the verb meant “to occupy habitually”.^[4] Döderlein's derivation of the noun from saliō is older.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Turpilius, in the sense of unfamiliarity: a fool who did not know what he wanted “from inexperience”.^[2][6] Köbler dates it from Accius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is first being unaccustomed to something, as Cicero's speaker unused to the forum and the courts, and Sallust's unfamiliarity with the route.^[2][3] It is also unusualness: Cicero says we should learn to shun foreign strangeness of speech.^[2] From unusual behaviour came lack of moderation, as when Cicero praises a man who loved the restraint of the ancestors and blamed the extravagance of the age, and finally insolence and arrogance: “learn the man's arrogance and insolence”.^[2]

Church Latin has it for excess, extravagance, pride.^[7]

Timeline

• 2nd century BC – Turpilius of inexperience.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of strangeness, extravagance and arrogance.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of unfamiliarity with a route.^[2][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Unfamiliarity with something, inexperience.^[2][3][1]
2. Unusualness, novelty, strangeness.^[2][1]
3. Lack of moderation, extravagance, excess.^[2][7]
4. insolence, arrogance; an insolent act.^[2][1][7]

Related words

• īnsolēns
• soleō
• superbia
• arrogantia

Usage notes

Döderlein sets it beside superbia, which looks down on others, arrogantia, which demands their homage, and fastus, which holds them at a distance: insolentia abuses its superiority rudely to humiliate the weaker; the superbus would outshine others, the īnsolēns insults them.^[5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson