invisibilitas

Forms

invīsibilitās f (genitive invīsibilitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin invīsibilis (“invisible”), formed with the suffix -tās.^[2][3][1] Conte calls it Late Latin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD)^[5] uses it of invisibility in his treatise against Praxeas, though the TLL notes that the reading there is an editor's conjecture; the manuscripts have visibilitas.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In an early Latin version of the Bible (Deuteronomy 28:28, in the Lyon manuscript) it means blindness, the state of one who cannot see, where the Vulgate has caecitas.^[2][4] Its usual sense, though, was the state of not being visible, above all the invisibility of God, a theme of Christian writers such as Novatian, Rufinus and Augustine.^[2]

Medieval writers kept this theological use: a Rhenish pontifical speaks of God's invisible power, and Albertus Magnus of an angel returning through invisibility to likeness with God.^[6] British writers from Lanfranc on use it in commenting on Paul's invisibilia of God.^[7] English borrowed it as invisibility in the 1560s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it (by an editor's conjecture) of invisibility.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of the invisibility of God.^[2][5]
• c. 1220–1280 – Albertus Magnus uses it of an angel laying aside its visible form.^[6]
• 1560s – Borrowed into English as invisibility.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Invisibility, the state of not being visible, especially of God.^[3][2][7]
2. (Late Latin) Blindness, inability to see.^[2][4]

Related words

• invīsibilis
• vīsibilis
• English invisibility

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com