intectus

Forms

intēctus (feminine intēcta, neuter intēctum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + tēctus (“covered”), the negative prefix with the participle of tegō (“to cover”).^[1][3] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *teg-e/o- (“to cover”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō, “to keep off, keep in”), Ancient Greek τέγος (tégos, “roof”), Old Irish teg (“house”) and Lithuanian stógas (“roof”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Histories of Sallust,^[1][3] of unroofed houses beside the burnt walls of temples, domus intectae parietesque templorum ambusti, and of bodies covered only with skins.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

It means uncovered, of houses without a roof or of water in an open channel (in a letter of Trajan to Pliny),^[1][2] and above all unclothed or bare: Tacitus says that the Germans spend whole days by the fire with nothing else on, and has it of bare feet and an uncovered head.^[1][5] Georges also gives “unarmoured, unprotected”, and Ammianus has it of uncovered flanks.^[2][5] Tacitus once uses it figuratively for “unguarded, frank”, of Tiberius, secretive towards others but made open towards one man alone.^[1][5]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust, of unroofed houses and bare bodies.^[1][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of naked bodies.^[1][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of bare feet and heads, and of a frank character.^[1][3]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus, of an uncovered head.^[5][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Uncovered, unroofed.^[1][5]
2. Of persons or parts of the body: unclothed, bare, naked; unprotected.^[1][2]
3. (figuratively) Not guarded, open, frank.^[1][5]

Related words

• tegō
• tēctum
• integō

Usage notes

The same spelling is also the perfect participle of integō, “to cover”, with the opposite meaning; the OLD and Georges list the participle separately.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press