intus

Forms

intus (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *entos (“inside”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁entós (“(from) inside”), formed from the root of in (“in”).^[2][3] The OLD and Wiktionary analyse it as the preposition with the adverb ending -tus.^[4][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐντός (entós, “within”).^[4][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] who has ecquis alius Sōsia intust quī meī similis siet?, “is there another Sosia inside who looks like me?”.^[4] Ennius has lātē specus intus patēbat, “inside, the cave opened wide”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Intus is “inside, within” (Caesar: with the enemy inside and outside), “at home, indoors”, “within the town”, “in the interior” of a country (Varro), and “inside the body” (Cato).^[4][5][1] In early Latin it also means “from within” (Plautus: intus pateram prōfertō forās, “bring the bowl out from inside”), and in Lucretius and later “inwards”, a use later grammarians rejected in favour of intrō.^[4][1] Figuratively it is “in the mind, privately”, and intus canere, “to sing to oneself”, became a byword for self-interest (Cicero).^[4] Apuleius uses it as a preposition with the genitive, after Greek ἐντός.^[4]

Church Latin glosses it “within, inside, inwardly”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ecquis alius Sōsia intust?.^[4][3]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: lātē specus intus patēbat.^[4][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it for “inwards”.^[4][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius: intus aedium.^[4][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. inside, within; at home, indoors.^[4][5][1][6]
2. In the interior (of a country); internally.^[4]
3. (early Latin) From within.^[4][1]
4. Inwards, to the inside.^[4][1]
5. In the mind, privately; inwardly.^[4][6]

Preposition

1. (with genitive or ablative) Inside.^[4][1]

Word family

• deintus
• intestīnus

Related words

• in
• intrā
• intrō
• intimus

Usage notes

Isidore of Seville says that the ancients called the anvil intus rather than incūs, because metal is beaten on it (intundere).^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften