longaevitas

Forms

longaevitās f (genitive longaevitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin longaevus (“of great age”) + -tās.^[2][3][4] The adjective longaevus is made of longus (“long”) and aevum (“lifetime, age”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Old Latin Bible (the Itala) and Ambrose on, and apart from Macrobius only in Christian writers;^[2] Köbler dates the Itala after 220 AD.^[5] It means a long life.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Ambrose uses it both of the long duration of something, this earthly pilgrimage,^[6][7] and of long life, granted to someone;^[3][6] Macrobius speaks of the long life of ravens.^[3][6] The spelling ⟨longevitas⟩ appears in a papyrus of Avitus.^[2]

Medieval Latin kept both senses and added old age.^[8][9] British writers use it of the long lives of the patriarchs, such as Methuselah's.^[9] English borrowed it as longevity in the 1610s,^[4] and it is the source of Italian longevità.^[7]

Timeline

• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible (Itala) is the first text the TLL names for it.^[2][5]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of long duration and of long life.^[6][7][5]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius speaks of the long life of ravens.^[3][6][5]
• 1610s – English borrows it as longevity.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Long duration.^[6][7][8]
2. Long life, longevity.^[3][6][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) Old age.^[8][9]

Related words

• longus
• aevum
• English longevity

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson