Etymologically
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intellegentia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɛl.lɛˈɡɛn.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.tel.leˈd͡ʒɛn.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

intellegentia f (genitive intellegentiae); first declension[1] Also intelligentia.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin intellegēns (“understanding”) + -ia,[2] from intellegō (“to understand”).[3][4] De Vaan takes ⟨intel-legere⟩ as a fairly recent compound with legō2 (“to gather”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *lege- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”);[5] cognate with Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to gather, count; speak”).[5] Sidonius already derived it from intellegō.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terence's Hecyra has it first in the OLD, in the prologue's hope that the audience's intelligence will calm the calamity,[2] and Varro has it in his Menippean Satires.[2] Köbler dates it from Cicero.[6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it often:[2][6] he defines it as the part of prudence by which the mind sees what is,[2] and uses it for the faculty of understanding,[2][3] the degree of understanding of ordinary people,[2] cleverness,[2] and an expert's understanding or taste, as in the Verrines, “intelligence, not greed”.[2] He also makes it an idea or notion, rendering Ancient Greek ἔννοια (énnoia).[2][7] Ulpian uses it for understanding of a language, and Justin for the art of interpreting dreams.[2][3][7] Church Latin has knowledge, understanding, intelligence, discernment and judgement.[8]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence, of the audience's intelligence.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of the mind's understanding.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, as a faculty of the mind and as a notion.[2][6]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian, of understanding a language.[2][6]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius derives it from intellegere.[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The faculty of discerning or understanding, comprehension.[2][3][1]
  2. A degree of understanding.[2]
  3. Intelligence, cleverness.[2][1]
  4. Understanding in a special field, discernment, taste.[2][7][1]
  5. An idea, concept, notion.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson