Etymologically
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mutabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [muːˈtaː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [muˈtaː.bi.lis][1]

Forms

mūtābilis (neuter mūtābile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] The comparative is perhaps found only in Valerius Maximus and a declamation against Catiline, which also has the superlative.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mūtō (“to change”) + -bilis.[2][3][4] De Vaan says mūtō and mūtuus presuppose a noun Proto-Italic *moito- (“object of change”), which may come from a root meaning to exchange in either of two forms; he finds the link with mittō less likely than one with mūnus.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.[6] In the OLD's earliest quotation he says that this form of state is the most liable to change.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is liable to change, changeable, uncertain: Cicero writes that every body is changeable, and has stars gliding in a wandering, changeable course.[7] Of persons it is fickle: Virgil calls woman ever a varying and changeable thing.[2] It is also that can be changed: Ovid has a speaker urge someone to take advice if his heart can still be changed.[2] Church Latin glosses it changeable.[8] English mutable comes from it, from the late 14th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a changeable form of state.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of fickle woman.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a heart that can be changed.[2][6]
  • late 14th century – English mutable.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Changeable, mutable, uncertain; of persons, fickle.[2][7][1][8]
  2. That can be changed, alterable.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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
  7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson