Etymologically
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intempestivus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɛm.pɛsˈtiː.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.tem.pesˈtiː.vus][1]

Forms

intempestīvus (feminine intempestīva, neuter intempestīvum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + tempestīvus (“timely, seasonable”).[2][3][1] The TLL compares Ancient Greek ἄκαιρος (ákairos, “ill-timed”) and intempestus (“unseasonable”).[3] tempestīvus is from tempus (“time”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”).[4] Augustine remarks that the ancients formed the word from time, not from storm.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Plautus' Mostellaria: “I think the doorposts were cut at the wrong time”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means not suited to the occasion, ill-timed or unseasonable, as Cicero tells Atticus that his letters never seemed untimely or too talkative, and writes that friendship is never out of season.[2][5] Lucretius uses it of rain unsuited to the season, and Seneca of a person with no sense of the right moment, as an untimely adviser.[2] Ovid has untimely desire.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of doorposts cut at the wrong time.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of unseasonable rain.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of untimely letters.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of an untimely adviser.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Ill-timed, untimely, unseasonable, inopportune; of weather, unsuited to the season; at the wrong time.[2][5][1]
  2. Having no sense of the right occasion.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de