intonsus

Forms

intōnsus (feminine intōnsa, neuter intōnsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + tōnsus (“shorn”), the participle of tondeō (“to shear”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces tondeō to Proto-Italic *tond-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *tond-eie- (“to shear”), comparing Old Irish teinnid (“breaks, cuts”) and Ancient Greek τένδω (téndō, “to gnaw at”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short cite Accius, quoted by Cicero, of someone tearing again and again in grief at uncut hair.^[5][6] The TLL finds it mainly in poetry from Accius, Varro and Virgil on, more rarely in prose.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is said of uncut hair and beards, often as a sign of youth, and of people with uncut hair: Horace and Ovid call Apollo the unshorn god.^[2][5] Virgil also uses it of unshorn sheep and of oaks that keep their foliage.^[2] Curtius uses it of uncut hair and of an unshaven chin.^[5]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of uncut hair.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a youth's unshaven face, of sheep and of leafy oaks.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of hair or beards, uncut.^[2][5][1]
2. Having uncut hair, unshorn; unshaven; of sheep, unshorn.^[2][5][1]
3. Of trees, not stripped of leaves; of land, not cleared of trees.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de