Etymologically
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interitus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪnˈtɛ.rɪ.tʊs], [ɪnˈtɛ.rɪ.tuːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈtɛː.ri.tus], [inˈtɛː.ri.tus][1]

Forms

interitus m (genitive interitūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from intereō (“to perish”) with the suffix -tus.[2][1] The verb is inter- with eō (“to go”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.[4] Cicero defines it as a kind of departure, separation and parting of things that were held together.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is violent or untimely death, as Cicero's mourning for an orator's early end, and the extinction of a family (Cicero).[2] It is the destruction of things, as Catiline plotting the destruction of the city, of institutions, as the fall and ruin of the state, and of qualities: Cicero asks what philosophy it is that does not destroy depravity.[2] An inscription uses it of the setting of the sun.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “death, destruction, overthrow, annihilation”.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of untimely death and the ruin of the state.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Violent or untimely death; extinction (of a family).[2][1][6]
  2. Destruction, ruin, annihilation.[2][1][6]
  3. The setting (of the sun).[2]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson