Etymologically
Log in

modus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 17:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmɔ.dʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmɔː.dus][1]

Forms

modus m (genitive modī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *medo- (“measure, judgement”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *med-o- (“measure”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, take appropriate measures”) that also gives meditor and medeor.[2][1][3][4] Following Schrijver, de Vaan takes the o as a phonetic development of *medo-, which then spread through the s-stem *medos- from which modestus and moderārī are derived; the older reconstruction *mod-o- is contradicted by Oscan meddíss (“magistrate”), “law-speaker”, from *med(V)-dik-.[2] Cognate with Umbrian meřs (“law”) and with Ancient Greek μήδομαι (mḗdomai, “to plan”), Ancient Greek μήδεα (mḗdea, “counsels”) and Armenian միտ (mit, “thought”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius onwards.[2][5] Plautus uses it of the measure of a field a father left his son and in the question quid modi?, “what limit?”.[3]

Semantic evolution

From a measured amount, especially of land, and a unit of measurement (Varro's acnua), it came to mean size or extent, then the due measure (modum tenere, to observe moderation), a limit or end (modum facere, to set bounds), and moderation itself, sine modo being “without restraint”.[3][6]

In music and verse it was the measure or rhythm, a note, and in the plural a melody or poems.[3] It also meant a way or method of doing something, in countless adverbial phrases: quo modo “how”, nullo modo “not at all”, eius modi “of that kind”, in modum, ad modum.[3][6] Rhetoricians used it to translate Greek tropos, grammarians for the voice of a verb and, in Late Latin, for the mood.[3][4]

Medieval texts use it for the wording of a text, a sign and a reason, and in post modum “afterwards”.[7][5] It survives as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese modo and Romanian mod, and as French mode, from which German Mode and the fashion sense derive;[1][5] English mode appears in the late 14th century for melodies, and the grammatical mood in the mid-15th.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a measure of land, of a limit and of moderation.[3][5]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has sine modo, without restraint, and Bacchico modo, in Bacchic fashion.[3][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a unit of land measurement.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of rhythm in speech and music and of a method.[3][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the voice of a verb.[3][5]
  • late 14th century – English Mode is borrowed into English.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A measured amount, a quantity; a unit of measurement.[3][6]
  2. Size, extent, as in pro modo, in proportion.[3]
  3. Due measure; a limit, a bound, an end.[3][6]
  4. Moderation, restraint.[3]
  5. (music, verse) A rhythm, a measure, a metre, or a note, and in the plural a melody or poems.[3]
  6. A manner, a way, a method, as in the adverbial phrases quo modo, how, and eius modi, of that kind.[3][6]
  7. (grammar) A voice of a verb, and in Late Latin a mood.[3][4]
  8. A kind, a form.[3]
  9. (Medieval Latin) The wording of a text; a sign; a reason.[7]

Word family

  • admodum
  • commodus
  • modestus
  • modicus
  • modificus
  • modimperātor
  • modō̆
  • modulus
  • praemodum
  • cuicuimodi
  • cuimodi

Usage notes

Döderlein takes modus in its moral sense as the objective “nothing too much”, while modestia is the feeling that prefers it and moderātiō the habit of acting on it.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
  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