intractabilis

Forms

intractābilis (neuter intractābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not, un-”) + tractābilis (“manageable”).^[2][1][3][4] The base is formed from tractō (“to handle”), the frequentative of trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Virgil,^[5][3] who calls a people genus intractābile bellō, “a race hard to master in war”, and has brūmae intractābilis, “of winter, when no work can be done”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that it is found in the poets Virgil and Grattius and in prose from the younger Seneca on.^[3] Of people it meant hard to deal with, unmanageable or harsh: Seneca begs his addressee not to be difficilem amīcīs et intractābilem, and Gellius has the comparative of a man more intractable and morose by nature.^[8][6] Of things it described what cannot be handled or used: a rock unmoved by the waves, a poison that cannot be cured, regions that cold makes uninhabitable.^[2][6][9] Servius glosses it as “unconquerable, rough, savage”.^[3]

Medieval writers used it of harsh or obstinate people, of land unfit for cultivation, and of God as intangible.^[10][11] It passed into Italian as intrattabile.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a warlike people and of winter.^[6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in prose of an intractable person.^[8][3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of an incurable poison.^[2][9][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses the comparative intractābilior.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot be dealt with, unmanageable, intractable; harsh, hard to subdue.^[2][6][8]
2. (of things or conditions) Rough, unusable; uninhabitable; incurable.^[2][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Intangible, that cannot be grasped (of God).^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ 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