munis

Forms

mūnis (neuter mūne); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Also moenis, an older spelling.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin commūnis (“common, shared”) and immūnis (“exempt”), a back-formation from those adjectives.^[2][3] De Vaan also allows a back-formation from ⟨commūnis⟩,^[4] while Wiktionary notes evidence that Proto-Italic *moinis already existed as an adjective.^[1] The words of the family go back to Proto-Italic *moini- and Proto-Italic *moinos- (“duty, obligation”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₂moi-no- (“exchange”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan múíníkú (“common”) and Old English ġemǣne (“common”).^[4][1]

Festus, in the epitome of Paul the Deacon, explained it as “dutiful”, and immūnis as its opposite, someone who performs no duty.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus, Mercātor 105: dīcō eius prō meritīs grātum mē et mūnem fore, “I say I will be grateful and obliged to him for his services”.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a rare word of early Latin.^[5] The OLD takes it as “under an obligation, indebted” and, apparently, also as “obliging, ready to serve”;^[2] Pacuvius uses it in that second sense.^[6][3] Nonius says that moenēs were those who agreed to what their friends wanted.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses mūnis of being obliged to someone.^[5][7]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it of someone ready to oblige.^[6][3][7]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius pairs mūnificī mūnēsque virī.^[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Under an obligation, indebted, grateful.^[2][6]
2. obliging, ready to serve, dutiful.^[2][5][8]

Related words

• commūnis
• immūnis
• mūnus
• mūnia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn