invenustus

Forms

invenustus (feminine invenusta, neuter invenustum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in-² (“not”) + venustus (“charming, attractive”).^[2][1][3] The base is derived from venus (“charm, desire”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *wenos- and Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁-os (“desire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus and Terence on.^[3] In the Poenulus Plautus has two young women describe themselves as dull and unattractive without fine clothes and money spent on them.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is “without charm, unlovely”, often in a litotes such as Cicero's “a not ungraceful actor”;^[5][3] Catullus uses it of a little harlot and of a deed,^[5] Vitruvius of the look of brickwork,^[3] and Columella of a vineyard.^[5]

Terence also uses it of a man without the favour of Venus, “unlucky in love”.^[2][5] The commentator Donatus explained it as the opposite of one “full of charm” through the favours of Venus: a man whose love has turned against him.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the sense “unattractive”.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a man unlucky in love.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls an actor “not ungraceful”.^[5][6]
• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus explains the word by the favours of Venus.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking in charm or beauty, unlovely, unattractive.^[2][5]
2. Unlucky in love, lovelorn.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de