Etymologically
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internuntius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɛrˈnuːn.ti.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.terˈnun.t͡si.us][1]

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

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