mundialis

Forms

mundiālis (neuter mundiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Also spelled mundalis in some manuscripts.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin mundus² (“world”) + -ālis,^[1][3] formed like māteriālis (“material”), according to the TLL.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Tertullian, who speaks in On the Spectacles of mundialia elementa, the elements of the world,^[3][4] around AD 160–220.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of Christian writers: the TLL finds it in pagan literature only in Julius Valerius, and among Church writers from Tertullian on, fairly often, including the poets Prudentius and Sedulius.^[2] It usually meant “of this world” with contempt, in the sense of secular, natural or pagan:^[2] Jerome speaks of mundialia negotia, worldly business,^[3] and Sulpicius Severus calls secular historians historici mundiales.^[3][6]

Medieval writers kept both senses, “of this world, secular” and “of the universe”,^[7] the latter especially in machina mundialis, the fabric of the universe.^[8] As a noun it named an inhabitant of this world, and in the neuter plural worldly things.^[8] In New Latin it also means global.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of mundialia elementa.^[3][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome writes of mundialia negotia.^[3][5]
• c. 363–c. 420 AD – Sulpicius Severus calls secular historians historici mundiales.^[6][5]
• 1338 – A letter in an Oxford formulary wishes that tota machina mundialis rise in praise of the Creator.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin, Ecclesiastical) Of this world, worldly, mundane, secular; often disparaging, of what is natural or pagan rather than spiritual.^[2][3][9][7]
2. (Late Latin) Of the world or the universe; cosmic.^[7][8]
3. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) An inhabitant of this world; in the neuter plural, worldly affairs.^[8]
4. (New Latin) Global, worldwide.^[1]

Word family

• supermundialis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e 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
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson