longinquitas

Forms

longinquitās f (genitive longinquitātis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts sometimes spell it longiquitās.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin longinquus (“distant”) + -tās.^[3][2] De Vaan thinks longinquus was formed on longē (“far”), as an opposite of propinquus, and traces longus to Proto-Italic *(d)longo- and Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰ-o- (“long”).^[4] Cognate with Old Norse langr (“long”) and Old High German lang (“long”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence,^[4][5] who has its only use in verse; in prose it is found from Cicero, Caesar and Livy on.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of space it is distance or remoteness: Cicero writes of an army disturbed by the great distance of its lands, and of a place to which everything arrives very slowly because of its remoteness.^[3][6] It is also great extent, length: Livy's troops were alarmed less by the war than by the length of the march, and Tacitus and Florus speak of the length of a journey.^[3][6] Of time it is extent or duration, especially long duration;^[3] Cicero's De inventione says that in considering time its length must be taken into account.^[3] The plural is found only in Augustine.^[2]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of distance and of duration.^[3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the length of a march.^[3][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of the length of a journey.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Distance, remoteness.^[3][6][1]
2. Great extent in space, length.^[3][6][1]
3. Extent in time, duration, especially long duration.^[3][1]

Related words

• longē
• longinquus
• longus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press