Etymologically
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inveteratus

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Forms

inveterātus (feminine inveterāta, neuter inveterātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of inveterō (“to make old, let grow old”), used as an adjective.[1][2] The verb is built on vetus (“old”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wetos- (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *wet-os- (“year”).[2][3] He compares Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”) and Sanskrit वत्सर (vatsará-, “year”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero, who speaks of wiping out a long-rooted barbarism.[2][1]

Semantic evolution

It is long-standing, ingrained, chronic, as in Cicero.[1] Of things it is aged or matured: Pliny the Elder writes that aged honey-wine is harmless.[1] Livy uses it of a mind long practised in war.[1] Church Latin glosses it old, decrepit.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of an ingrained barbarism.[1][2]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a mind practised in war.[1][2]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of aged honey-wine.[1][2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Allowed to grow old, aged, matured.[1]
  2. Long-standing, inveterate, chronic; of persons, experienced, practised.[1]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Old, decrepit.[4]
  • inveterō
  • vetus
  • inveterāscō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson