intrepidus

Forms

intrepidus (feminine intrepida, neuter intrepidum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + trepidus (“alarmed, anxious”).^[2][1][3] Etymonline traces trepidus to Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to tremble”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ovid,^[5] who has Polyxena showing a fearless face to her last moment.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means fearless or undaunted, of people and animals, as Livy's elephants and Tacitus' man unshaken by threats, and of looks, words or actions that show no fear.^[2][6] It also means free from anxiety, untroubled, as in Statius, and of conditions secure, as Seneca's undisturbed possession of the past.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is poetic and post-Augustan.^[6] English intrepid (1690s) comes from it through French and directly.^[4]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a fearless face.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of elephants.^[6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a man standing fearless over a chasm.^[2][5]
• 1690s – English intrepid.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fearless, undaunted, intrepid; showing no fear.^[2][6][1]
2. Free from anxiety, untroubled.^[2]

Related words

• trepidus

References

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