Etymologically
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intolerabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɔ.ɫɛˈraː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.to.leˈraː.bi.lis][1]

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

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