Etymologically
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longinquitas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫɔŋˈɡɪŋ.kʷɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [lon̠ʲˈd͡ʒiŋ.kʷi.tas][1]

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]

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