intestabilis

Forms

intestābilis (neuter intestābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + testor (“to call to witness, make a will”) + -bilis,^[2][3] or in- and testābilis.^[1] The verb comes from testis (“witness”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tri-sto-, originally the “third standing by”.^[4] It has a cognate in Oscan trstus (“witnesses”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It goes back to the Twelve Tables,^[4][5] which declared that whoever had been a witness or scale-holder at a transaction and then refused to testify was improbus intestābilisque, dishonest and disqualified.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense was that such a person could not call witnesses, give evidence or make a will;^[2][6] the jurists in the Digest still use it so, of a man condemned for a libellous poem, who could neither make a will nor be a witness to one.^[6][7]

From disgrace in law it passed to disgrace in general: Sallust calls a man improbus intestābilisque who valued a life of shame above his good name,^[2] and it means infamous or detestable in Horace, Livy (of perjury), Pliny the Elder (of magic) and Tacitus, who also has the comparative.^[8][7] Plautus puns on it with testis “testicle”.^[8][9]

Medieval Latin kept both uses: a charter of 1151 has it of one not fit to be a witness, and others of people who may not make a will or inherit by one;^[10] a papal letter of 1317 declares certain vassals so disqualified.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables disqualify a witness who refuses to testify.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of a shameful man.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of what is detestable.^[7][5]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of one who cannot give evidence.^[7][5]
• 1151 – A charter uses it of one unfit to be a witness.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (law) Disqualified from being a witness or calling witnesses, and so from making a will.^[2][6][9]
2. Infamous, shameful, detestable.^[2][6]

Related words

• testābilis
• testis
• testor
• testāmentum

Usage notes

Georges and Gaffiot list a second intestābilis made from testis “testicle”, “without testicles”, which Plautus uses in a double sense with this word.^[8][7][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press