mobilitas

Forms

mōbilitās f (genitive mōbilitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mōbilis (“movable, quick”) + -tās.^[2][1] The adjective mōbilis is made from moveō (“to move”),^[3] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *mow(a)- and Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).^[3] Cognate with Lithuanian máudyti (“to bathe”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[3] who says the mind cannot feel pain because of the speed of the evil.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is quickness of the body or mind, as in Cicero's “not glibness of tongue”, quickness of movement in things, and the power of moving, also the looseness of teeth.^[2] Caesar contrasts the speed of cavalry with the steadiness of infantry.^[4] Of people it is inconstancy or fickleness, as Cicero's list of inconstancy, levity and fickleness, and Nepos uses it of the changing fortune that ruined Dion.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “fickleness, changeability, mobility”,^[5] and in Medieval Latin it means movable property.^[6] English mobility was borrowed in the early 15th century, from Old French and directly from the Latin word.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of speed and of the atoms' power of movement.^[2][3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of glibness and of fickleness.^[2][8]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of fickle fortune.^[2][8]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as mobility.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Quickness of body or mind, agility.^[2][4][1]
2. Speed of movement; the rate of the pulse.^[2]
3. Power of movement, mobility; looseness of teeth.^[2][1]
4. Inconstancy, fickleness, changeability.^[2][4][5][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) Movable property, chattels.^[6]

Related words

• mōbilis
• moveō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de