irremeabilis

Forms

irremeābilis (neuter irremeābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed with the negative prefix in-², remeō (“to go back, return”) and the suffix -bilis.^[2][1] It could also be read as ⟨in⟩ and remeābilis, but that adjective is attested much later and may be a back-formation from this one.^[1] The simple verb meō (“to go”) goes back to Proto-Italic *mejo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂mei-o- (“to (ex)change”).^[3] The form is also spelled ⟨inremeābilis⟩.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Virgil's Aeneid,^[5][6] which uses it of the labyrinth's maze that allows no way back, and of the water of the underworld, which allows no return.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is chiefly a poetic word, used above all of death and the underworld:^[5] Seneca the Younger writes of roads that admit no return, and Silius Italicus of a shore.^[4] In prose the TLL records it from Arnobius on.^[5] Ancient glossaries explain it as “not to be gone over again”.^[5]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the labyrinth and of the river of the underworld.^[5][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger writes of roads with no return.^[4][5][6]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it in prose.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. From which, along which or across which one cannot return; irremeable.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de