mox

Forms

mox (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *moks, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *moḱs (“soon”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan leaves open whether the PIE word was a locative plural in ⟨*-su⟩ or a u-stem, and calls the root uncertain.^[2]

Cognate with Old Irish mos- (“soon”), Middle Welsh moch (“soon”), Sanskrit मक्षू (makṣū́, “quickly”) and Avestan mošu (“soon”).^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus;^[2] in the prologue of the Menaechmi the speaker warns nē mox errētis, “so that you do not go wrong soon”.^[4] Köbler cites it first from Ennius.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Mox is “soon, presently”, of the near future;^[4][6] quam mox? asks “how soon?”.^[4][6] Of the past it means “a little later, afterwards”, and in lists “next”, in place or in rank.^[4] The jurists use mox quam for “as soon as”.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it means “at once”, and as a conjunction (mox ut or mox alone) “as soon as”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nē mox errētis.^[4][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: mox ego hūc revertor, “I'll be back here soon”.^[6][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for “afterwards, next”.^[4][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the next item in a list.^[4][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. soon, presently;^[4][6][1][8] quam mox?, how soon?^[4]
2. Afterwards, later, then.^[4][1]
3. Next (in a series, in place or rank).^[4]
4. mox quam, mox ut, as soon as.^[4][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) At once, directly.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson