Etymologically
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largus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɫar.ɡʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈlar.ɡus][1]

Forms

largus (feminine larga, neuter largum, comparative largior, superlative largissimus, adverb largē or largiter); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3][4] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny derived it from *lajes-ago- “carrying fat”, with the stem they also saw in lāridum “bacon” and perhaps laetus.[2][1] De Vaan finds this doubtful: the long ⟨ā⟩, marked once in an inscription, may not be original, and the meaning is not convincing.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,[2][5] whose Bacchides sets it against its opposite: “just, unjust, mean, generous”.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant generous, bountiful or lavish, of people and, in poetry, of things, and Cicero speaks of someone who “wanted to be most generous”.[4] It also meant indulging freely, as largus bibendi “a hard drinker” in Gellius.[4] Of things it meant plentiful or copious, as Lucretius' large draughts and Cicero's sun filling the earth with abundant light, and with a genitive “rich in”.[4][6]

In Medieval Latin it also meant broad or wide, and the neuter largum meant width.[7] It survives with the sense “wide” as Romanian larg, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese largo, and French large.[1] English large came from Old French about 1200, first meaning “generous”.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for generous.[4][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it for copious draughts.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for generosity and abundant light.[4][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius explains bibosus as largus atque avidus bibendi.[4][5]
  • c. 1200 – English large is first recorded, meaning “generous”.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Generous, bountiful, lavish.[4][9]
  2. Indulging freely (in).[4]
  3. Plentiful, copious, abundant.[4][1]
  4. (with genitive) Rich (in), abounding (in).[6][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Broad, wide.[7]

Word family

  • largificō
  • largificus
  • largifluus
  • largiloquus
  • largitās
  • largitūdō
  • largitus
  • largiusculus
  • praelargus
  • largē
  • largior
  • largiter
  • English large
  • English largesse

Usage notes

Döderlein notes that largus is anyone who gives richly, whatever the motive, the opposite of parcus, while benignus, liberalis and munificus describe the giver's virtue.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper