interritus

Forms

interritus (feminine interrita, neuter interritum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + territus (“frightened”), the participle of terreō (“to frighten”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan, following the LIV, traces terreō to Proto-Italic *tros-eje- (“to scare”) and Proto-Indo-European *tros-eie- (“to make scared”), comparing Umbrian tursitu (“to scare”), Sanskrit त्रसन्ति (trásanti, “they tremble”) and Ancient Greek τρέω (tréō, “to be scared, tremble”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's earliest examples are in Virgil, who has a man raising his arms undaunted and a fleet sailing on unafraid.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means undaunted or fearless, of people and animals, and in poetry of things such as a fleet.^[2][5] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose, as in Quintilian's unflinching face.^[5] Köbler gives Ovid as its first author.^[6] Manuscripts often confuse it with interitus, destruction.^[3]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a fearless boxer and fleet.^[5][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^[6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of an unflinching face.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not frightened, undaunted, fearless.^[2][5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de