intimo

Forms

intimō (present infinitive intimāre, perfect active intimāvī, supine intimātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin intimus (“innermost”) + -ō, a verb made from the adjective.^[2][3][1] The adjective is the superlative of intus (“within”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest citations in the OLD are from Apuleius, who uses it with a dative for impressing something deeply on someone or making someone familiar with something.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In later Latin its literal sense was “to put or bring into”: Solinus says that the Nile is “intimated” into the sea, that is, flows into it.^[5][6] Tertullian used it for driving or pressing something into the mind.^[5] From there it came to mean “to make known, announce”, a sense found in Ammianus Marcellinus and Trebellius Pollio and common in late legal and ecclesiastical texts.^[5][6][7]

Medieval Latin kept the senses of inculcating and announcing and added legal ones: to notify a person formally, to serve a summons, to bring a case before a court, and to enter or enrol in a register.^[8] British sources also use it for transferring property to someone and for making a person intimate with another.^[9] English took intimate from its past participle in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for impressing something on someone.^[2][4]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for driving an image into the mind.^[5][4]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus says that the Nile flows (intimatur) into the sea.^[5][4]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it for announcing news.^[5][4]
• 1530s – English borrows intimate “to make known formally” from the Late Latin participle intimatus.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put or bring into;^[5][6] (passive) to flow into.^[5][6]
2. To impress deeply upon, make familiar with (with a dative).^[2][5]
3. To make known, announce, intimate.^[5][6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) To notify formally, serve notice on someone.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) To bring a case before a court; to enter or enrol in a register.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) To tell, relate.^[8]

Word family

• intimātiō
• intimator

Related words

• intus
• English intimate

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com