insperans

Forms

īnspērāns (genitive īnspērantis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + spērō (“to hope”), from its present participle.^[2][3] The verb is formed from spēs (“hope”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *spēs and Proto-Indo-European *spéh₁-s (“prosperity”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first quotation is from Terence's Andria, of a wedding arranged against the hopes of one man and the will of another.^[3][5] Köbler gives Plautus as the first source.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly used in the oblique cases, of someone to whom something happens beyond hope.^[7] Usually the event is a good one: Cicero says that something fell out for him and Cotta īnspērantī, beyond hope but just as they wished, and Catullus and Tibullus use it of a lover's return or a girl's coming.^[3][8] In verse inscriptions it is also used of misfortune that strikes unexpectedly.^[3]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the Andria.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in On the Orator and the speech for Marcellus.^[3][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a beloved who returns beyond hope.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not hoping, not expecting; beyond one's hopes.^[2][7][3]

Related words

• īnspērātus
• spērō
• spēs

Usage notes

The adverb is īnspēranter, “unexpectedly”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn