minax

Forms

mināx (genitive minācis, adverb mināciter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from minae (“threats; projecting points”) with the suffix -āx.^[2][3] Lewis and Short and Wiktionary derive it from minor (“to jut out; to threaten”) instead.^[4][1] De Vaan explains ⟨minae⟩ as first “part which sticks out”, from Proto-Italic *men-ā- beside the stative ēmineō (“to stand out”), from Proto-Indo-European *m(e)n-eh₁-, the root ⟨*men-⟩ “to stick out” also in mōns (“mountain”).^[5] Isidore of Seville derived it from the look of the eyes when they blaze with fury.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Ennius as its first author.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In poetry it is projecting or overhanging, as Virgil's figure hanging from a jutting rock, and Lucretius' threatening mass of stone that crushes crops.^[2][4] Its usual sense is menacing or threatening, of people, as Cicero's Indutiomarus “threatening and arrogant”, of words and letters, as the threatening letter of Brutus and Cassius, and of things.^[2][4][1] Of conditions and portents it is boding ill, as Cicero's threatening dreams.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “threatening”.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius.^[6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of overhanging rock.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a menacing Gaul and of dreams.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a jutting rock.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Projecting, overhanging, jutting out.^[2][4][1]
2. Threatening, menacing.^[2][4][1][7]
3. Boding ill, ominous.^[2]

Word family

• minācia

Related words

• minae
• minor
• ēmineō
• immineō
• mōns
• English menace

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson