munificus

Forms

mūnificus (feminine mūnifica, neuter mūnificum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The comparative and superlative are mūnificentior, mūnificentissimus, according to Festus as epitomised by Paul the Deacon, but Cato has the comparative mūnificior.^[2]

Etymology

The OLD analyses it as from Latin mūnia (“duties”) + -ficus,^[2] Lewis and Short and Wiktionary as made from mūnus (“duty, gift”) and faciō (“to do, make”).^[3][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of mūnus, which goes back to Proto-Italic *moinos- (“duty, obligation, task”), probably from a noun Proto-Indo-European *h2moi-no- (“exchange”).^[4] Cognates include Oscan múíníkú (“common”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Plautus,^[4][5] who uses it in the sense dutiful: the speaker counts as her dowry fear of the gods, love of her parents, being obliging atque ut munifica sim bonis, “and dutiful to the good”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was performing one's obligations, dutiful.^[2] From Lucilius on it meant generous, bountiful, munificent: Cicero praises a man as most liberal and most munificent and says one should be munificent in giving.^[2][3] Ovid and Pliny the Elder apply it to things bestowed, unstinted.^[2] In legal texts and inscriptions it also meant subject to tax or duty, and of persons paying contributions; of soldiers, in a doubtful reading, doing duty.^[2][3]

Döderlein contrasts it with lārgus, which can describe any rich giver;^[6] munificus, like benignus and līberālis, marks a virtue in the giver, here a princely feeling or laudable ambition.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the sense dutiful.^[2][4][5]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it in the sense generous.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls a man liberalissimus munificentissimusque.^[2][3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of gifts.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Performing one's obligations, dutiful.^[2]
2. Generous, bountiful, munificent, liberal.^[2][3][1]
3. (of things bestowed) Unstinted.^[2]
4. Subject to tax or duty; paying contributions;^[2][3] (of soldiers) doing duty.^[2][3]

Related words

• mūnus
• mūnificentia
• mūnia
• mūnifex

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper