intolerantia

Forms

intolerantia f (genitive intolerantiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin intolerāns (“impatient; unbearable”) + -ia.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero on,^[3][4] who uses it in the speech for Cluentius of insufferable, overbearing conduct, coupled with superbia “arrogance”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word looks both ways, like its base: actively it is the inability to bear something, impatience, and passively the quality of being unbearable.^[5][2] Gellius reports a definition of Epictetus naming two very grave vices, of which one is not bearing the wrongs that ought to be borne;^[5][3] Orosius speaks of the unendurableness of thirst.^[5] After Cicero it is used by Tacitus and Suetonius.^[3]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for intolerance and impatience as well as insolence.^[6] English borrowed it as intolerance, first recorded in 1765 for unwillingness to bear a differing opinion or belief, after an isolated use around 1500.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of insufferable, arrogant conduct.^[5][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses the word.^[3][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it actively, of not bearing wrongs that should be borne.^[5][4]
• 417/418 AD – Orosius uses it passively, of the unendurableness of thirst.^[5][4]
• 1765 – English borrows it as intolerance.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Impatience, inability to endure or tolerate something.^[2][5]
2. Unendurableness, the quality of being unbearable.^[5]
3. Insolence, insufferable or overbearing behaviour.^[5][8]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Intolerance.^[6]

Related words

• tolerantia
• tolerō
• English intolerance

References

1. ^ a b 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 c d e 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn