intempestus

Forms

intempestus (feminine intempesta, neuter intempestum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + tempus (“time”) + -tus.^[2][1][3] The TLL notes that a simple ⟨tempestus⟩ is found only in Festus' epitome.^[3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of tempus, which he traces to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”), a noun that came to mean a stretch of time and then time or occasion.^[4] Macrobius explained the dead of night as night that has no time fit for doing anything.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[4] whose Annals have the phrase ⟨nox intempesta⟩: “when the dead of night held the light above”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is in ⟨nox intempesta⟩, the dead of night, which Cicero and Virgil also use and Varro discusses.^[5][2] Otherwise it means unseasonable or untimely: Statius has men overcome by sleep at the wrong time.^[2] Of weather it is inclement or stormy, again in Statius, and of a place apparently unhealthy.^[2] Wiktionary adds the senses unpropitious and dark, dismal.^[1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the dead of night.^[2][4][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro discusses the phrase.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the dead of night.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the dead of night.^[5][6]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius of untimely sleep and of stormy weather.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. nox intempesta, the dead of night.^[2][5]
2. Unseasonable, untimely.^[2][5][1]
3. Of weather, inclement, stormy; of a place, unhealthy.^[2][1]

Word family

• intempestum

Related words

• tempus
• tempestās

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 i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de