Etymologically
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loquacitas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫɔˈkʷaː.kɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [loˈkʷaː.t͡ʃi.tas][1]

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]

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