Etymologically
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invideo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɪnˈwɪ.de.oː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [iɱˈviː.de.o][1]

Forms

invideō (present infinitive invidēre, perfect active invīdī, supine invīsum); second conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from in- and videō “to see”.[2][1][3] Wiktionary explains that the meaning went from “look at” to “look askance at” to “envy”.[1] Lewis and Short compare Ancient Greek βασκαίνω (baskaínō, “to bewitch, cast the evil eye”).[4] Inscriptions spell it ⟨inveid-⟩.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are from Plautus, of envying.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

In early Latin it could mean to cast an evil eye on, as in Accius and Catullus, a use Lewis and Short call only ante-classical.[4][6] Its common sense was to look askance at, envy, be jealous of, with a dative of the person or the thing, as in Plautus and Nepos.[2] From Virgil onwards it also meant to begrudge, refuse, and Horace has it with a genitive, perhaps on the model of Greek phthoneîn.[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to envy, grudge, be jealous.[7] Its noun invidia passed through Old French envie into English envy in the late 13th century.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of envying.[2][5]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of the evil eye.[4][6][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of begrudging.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (early Latin) To cast an evil eye on.[4][6]
  2. To look askance at, envy, be jealous of.[2]
  3. To begrudge, refuse.[2]

Word family

  • invidēns
  • invidentia
  • invidus
  • subinvideō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com