Etymologically
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multimodis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mʊɫˈtɪ.mɔ.diːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [mulˈtiː.mo.dis][1]

Forms

multimodīs (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is a contraction of the phrase multīs modīs (“in many ways”), from multus (“much, many”) and modus (“way, manner”);[2][3][1] the OLD compares omnimodīs.[2] Cicero notes that the Romans of old often shortened words for brevity and said the phrase without the /s/ of its first word.[3][4] De Vaan traces modus to Proto-Italic *medo- (“measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *med-o- (“measure”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.[6] The TLL finds it in early Latin, in the comic and tragic poets and Lucretius, and again from Fronto on.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means in many ways, variously.[2][1] The TLL notes that it was out of use in Cicero's time:[3] Lewis & Short call it very rare, and Madvig rejected it in a passage of Cicero's De finibus where some editors read it.[4] It reappears from Fronto on.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius.[3][6]
  • 100–170 AD – Fronto and later writers revive it.[3][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. In many ways, variously.[2][4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de