Etymologically
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lentitudo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫɛn.tɪˈtuː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [len.tiˈtuː.do][1]

Forms

lentitūdō f (genitive lentitūdinis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lentus (“pliant; slow”) + -tūdō.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces lentus to Proto-Italic *lento- (“soft”) and Proto-Indo-European *lent-o- (“soft, smooth, pliant”).[4] Cognate with Lithuanian lentà (“board, plank”) and Old High German lindi (“soft, mild”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who writes to his brother that never to be angry belongs not only to dignity but sometimes also to apathy, nōnnumquam etiam lentitūdinis.[6]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it of the pliancy of the elm and the ash, and Pliny the Elder of a mixture boiled until it has the stickiness of honey.[2][7] Of people it meant slowness or dilatoriness: Velleius has Metellus accused of slowness in dragging a war into its third year, and Tacitus writes of the hesitation of conspirators.[2][6] Cicero also uses it for apathy or lack of feeling, and Tacitus in the Dialogus of dullness of style.[2][6][7]

British medieval writers used it for slowness in action.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of apathy in not growing angry.[6][5]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the pliancy of wood.[2][5]
  • c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius uses it of a general's slowness.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of stickiness.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Flexibility, pliancy.[2]
  2. Viscosity, stickiness.[2]
  3. Slowness in action, sluggishness, dilatoriness.[2][6]
  4. Lack of feeling, apathy; of style, dullness.[2][6][7]

Usage notes

Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with lēnitūdō “mildness”, as in Cicero's letter to his brother and in Pliny the Elder.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ 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