limpidus

Forms

limpidus (feminine limpida, neuter limpidum, superlative limpidissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] De Vaan thinks it may well be from Latin limpor (“a clear liquid”) by a productive pattern, since that noun is found earlier, in Lucilius.^[2] He finds possible the view of Solta, following Ernout, that it is a dialectal Sabellic form, from a verb meaning “to be liquid” that goes back to Proto-Italic *li-n-kʷ-ē-, the root of linquō; this would mean that Sabellic put a nasal infix into the stative present that Latin keeps in liqueō.^[2] The OLD suggests a form *limpa, the same word as lympha, with the suffix -idus.^[3][4] Lewis & Short compare Ancient Greek λάμπω (lámpō, “to shine”), and Wiktionary reports the traditional derivation from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂p- (“to shine”).^[5][1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from water: Isidore of Seville explains that clear wine is so called from its watery look, as if the word were formed from the word for water.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Catullus is the first to use it,^[2][3] of a clear lake.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

It was used mainly of liquids, “clear, transparent”: water in Vitruvius, the clearest wine in Columella, the air in Seneca.^[3][6] Pliny the Elder applies it to precious stones and alum, and transferred it to the voice, which a drug makes clear and resonant.^[3][5] Lewis & Short note that it is poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^[5]

In Late Latin it also meant “clean”.^[1] Its Romance continuants include Spanish limpio and Portuguese limpo,^[6] and English took it as limpid about 1600, from French and directly from Latin.^[4]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus speaks of a clear lake.^[3][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses the comparative of water.^[3][6][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the superlative of wine.^[3][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder applies it to the voice.^[3][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it as “like water”.^[6][7]
• c. 1600 – English borrows it as limpid.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (especially of liquids) Clear, transparent, limpid.^[3][5]
2. (of the voice) Clear.^[3]
3. (Late Latin) Clean.^[1]

Word family

• limpiditas
• limpidō

Related words

• limpor
• lympha
• English limpid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de