invius

Forms

invius (feminine invia, neuter invium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + via (“road, way”) + -us.^[2][1] De Vaan traces via to Proto-Italic *wijā- (“road”) and Proto-Indo-European *uih₁-eh₂- (“pursuit”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[4] who has hunters coming into the high mountains and the trackless lairs of beasts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means without a road, impassable, of country and of paths;^[2][5] Lewis & Short note that neither Cicero nor Caesar uses it.^[2][5] Livy uses the neuter as a noun, of soldiers led through steep and almost pathless places.^[2] It is also inaccessible, as Ovid's temples closed to the profane, and of things impenetrable.^[2] In Church Latin invium is a wasteland or desert.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of trackless lairs and a long pathless way.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of pathless places.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of inaccessible temples.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Without a road, impassable, trackless, pathless.^[2][5][1]
2. Inaccessible; impenetrable.^[2][1]

Noun

1. (neuter) A pathless place;^[2][6] (Ecclesiastical Latin) a wasteland, desert.^[2][6]

Related words

• via
• dēvius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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