Etymologically
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irremeabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪr.rɛ.meˈaː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ir.re.meˈaː.bi.lis][1]

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