monstruosus

Forms

mōnstruōsus (feminine mōnstruōsa, neuter mōnstruōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Also spelled mōnstrōsus.^[2][3] The TLL finds the longer form the more usual, and the shorter the only reading in a few places, such as a passage of Seneca;^[3] Lewis & Short call the shorter form post-classical.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin mōnstrum (“portent, monster”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] The TLL compares portentōsus, formed in the same way from a word for an omen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first to use it, in On Divination, where he calls the ape illam mōnstruōsissimam bestiam, “that most unnatural beast”.^[2][4][5] In the same work he has the adverb mōnstruōsē “in an unnatural way”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is of what is portentous or ill-omened, but it is mostly used of what goes against nature: deformed births,^[2][6] mutilated bodies and strange diseases in Seneca,^[6] unnatural lusts in Suetonius.^[4][6] It also came to mean simply strange or astonishing: Petronius has a dish longē mōnstruōsius “far more extraordinary”,^[4] Suetonius calls a grammarian mōnstruōsus vītā scrīptīsque,^[4] and Macrobius speaks of a pearl of monstrous size.^[6]

Medieval writers used it of abnormal births and of anything contrary to the natural order,^[7] and of monsters themselves, such as a sea beast.^[7] English took ⟨monstruous⟩ in the late 14th century, through Old French and directly from Late Latin; ⟨monstrous⟩ followed in the mid-15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls the ape a most unnatural beast.^[2][4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of deformed bodies and diseases.^[6][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses the comparative of a dish at a banquet.^[4][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of unnatural lusts and of a strange life.^[4][6][5]
• 1st half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius speaks of a pearl of monstrous size.^[6][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as ⟨monstruous⟩.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Portentous, ill-omened.^[2]
2. Against nature, unnatural, monstrous.^[2][4][6]
3. Strange, extraordinary.^[6][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) Of or like a monster.^[7]

Word family

• monstrositas

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com