Etymologically
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insuetus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩː.suˈeː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.suˈɛː.tus][1]

Forms

īnsuētus (feminine īnsuēta, neuter īnsuētum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + suētus (“accustomed”), the participle of suēscō (“to become accustomed”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces suēscō to Proto-Italic *swē(þ)-sk-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *sue(h₁-)dʰh₁- (“to make one's own, get accustomed”), comparing Ancient Greek εἴωθα (eíōtha, “to be used to”) and Ancient Greek ἦθος (êthos, “custom”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in Pacuvius,[3] who has someone called by an unaccustomed name.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means unaccustomed or unused to something, with a genitive, dative, ⟨ad⟩ or an infinitive: Cicero has a man unused to insult, Caesar men unused to labour and to a kind of fighting, Tibullus hands unused to work.[2][5] It also means unfamiliar or unusual.[2][1] The TLL finds it in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero, and more often from Caesar on.[3] Döderlein notes that Livy pairs it with insolitus.[6]

Timeline

  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of an unfamiliar name.[2][3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man unused to insult.[5][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of men unused to labour.[5][7]
  • c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus of hands unused to work.[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unaccustomed, unused to; inexperienced.[2][5][1]
  2. Unfamiliar, unusual.[2][1]

Word family

  • insuetudo

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de