loquacitas

Forms

loquācitās f (genitive loquācitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin loquāx (“talkative”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] That adjective is formed from loquor (“to speak”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *tlokw- (“to talk”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in prose from Cicero on;^[3] Cicero has it in his letters.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it of the long-windedness of a historian, Macer, and of a Greek.^[5] Livy observes that the more carefully secrets are kept, the more easily they leak out through the talkativeness of royal servants, and Quintilian warns against empty wordiness in speakers.^[5] Pliny the Elder uses it of the chatter of magpies.^[5] In medieval Latin it could mean eloquence or the power of speech.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of talkativeness.^[5][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of royal servants who let secrets out.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of magpies.^[5][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian warns against empty wordiness.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Talkativeness, garrulity.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Eloquence; the power of speech.^[7]

Related words

• loquāx
• loquor

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts it with garrulitas: garrulity is idle chatter for the pleasure of talking, while loquācitās is the long-windedness of someone who cannot stop, and so is tedious rather than silly.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. ^ 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 f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper