intolerabilis

Forms

intolerābilis (neuter intolerābile, comparative intolerābilior); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Manuscripts often spell it with -oll-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + tolerābilis (“bearable”),^[3][1][2] and tolerābilis is made from tolerō (“to bear, endure”).^[4][2] For tolerō, de Vaan reports Nussbaum's proposal of a present built on Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to lift, bear”), the root of tollō.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Plautus, of unbearable expenses.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means unendurable, physically or mentally, as Cicero's unbearable cold, and in Livy irresistible, of Roman strength once the battle had turned.^[3] Of things and persons it is insufferable, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero.^[3][6] In early Latin it could also be active, unable to bear something, as in Afranius.^[3][6][1] Church Latin glosses it “unbearable, overwhelming”.^[7] English intolerable dates from the late 14th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of unbearable expenses.^[3][8]
• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius in the active sense unable to endure.^[3][6][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of unbearable cold.^[3][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of irresistible strength.^[3][8]
• late 14th century – English intolerable.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unendurable, insupportable; irresistible.^[3][6][1]
2. Intolerable, insufferable, of things or persons.^[3][6][1]
3. (early Latin) Unable to endure, impatient.^[3][6][1]

Word family

• intolerabilitas

Related words

• tolerō
• tollō

References

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