internuntius

Forms

internūntius m (genitive internūntiī or internūntī); second declension^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- (“between”) + nūntius (“messenger”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan reconstructs nūntius as ⟨*nountio-⟩ and finds its further origin unclear: some derive it from a root Proto-Indo-European *neuH- (“to cry”), others from novus (“new”), but the second makes no sense morphologically.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[5][6] in whose Miles Gloriosus someone asks whether they should dare to act as go-between from a freedwoman.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a person who carries messages between two parties, a messenger or go-between:^[2][3] Caesar has messengers sent back and forth, Livy an agent and servant of the whole affair, and Curtius a go-between for peace.^[3] Gaius explains that contracts can be made between absent parties by letter or through a messenger.^[3] It is also used of priests as go-betweens of god and man: Cicero calls the augurs interpreters and messengers of Jupiter.^[2][3] The feminine internūntia appears in Plautus and in Cicero, who has birds as messengers of Jupiter, and Pliny the Elder uses it of doves.^[3] Apuleius has a neuter internūntium for the organs of sense.^[3] In Church Latin it is an internuncio.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a go-between.^[3][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the augurs as Jupiter's messengers.^[3][2]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of messengers sent back and forth.^[3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of an agent.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A messenger between two parties, a go-between, intermediary.^[2][3][1]
2. An intermediary between gods and men, of priests.^[2][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An internuncio.^[7]

Word family

• internūntia
• internuntium

Related words

• nūntius
• nūntiō

References

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