insolitus

Forms

īnsolitus (feminine īnsolita, neuter īnsolitum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It has no comparative or superlative, and a variant īnsul- is recorded.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from in- (“not”) and solitus (“accustomed”), the participle of soleō (“to be accustomed”).^[3][2][1][4] The origin of ⟨soleō⟩ is disputed: de Vaan rejects a link with suēscō (“to become used to”) and cites the old proposal adopted by LIV, an iterative Proto-Indo-European *sol-eh₁- (“to occupy, inhabit”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author,^[4] who asks Verres in the Verrines whether he drags farmers from their fields into the forum, to an unfamiliar lawsuit.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is unusual, unfamiliar or unwonted, as in Cicero.^[3][6][1] Of people it is unaccustomed to something, used absolutely, with ad or with the genitive, as Cicero's modest women forced to appear, unused and unwilling, before so large a gathering of men.^[3][6]

Church Latin glosses it “unaccustomed, unusual”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an unfamiliar lawsuit and of women unused to gatherings.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unusual, unfamiliar, unwonted.^[3][6][1][7]
2. Unaccustomed (to), unused.^[3][6][1][7]

Related words

• soleō
• solitus
• īnsolēns
• inūsitātus

Usage notes

Döderlein notes that solēre is said of events and actions, to be used to happen, while cōnsuēvisse is said only of a person's actions, to be wont.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper