Etymologically
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narrativus

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Forms

narrātīvus (feminine narrātīva, neuter narrātīvum); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin narrō + -tīvus, from the verb meaning “to tell, relate”.[2][1][3] The verb narrō is a Proto-Italic formation from the adjective seen in gnārus “knowing”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a word of the grammarians and rhetoricians.[2][3] The TLL's earliest instance is in Donatus' commentary on Terence's Andria, where a statement is called narrative.[2]

Semantic evolution

In grammar it described a sentence or statement that tells something, and a kind of poetry: one grammarian divides poetry into three kinds, the dramatic (actuale), the narrative and the mixed (coniunctivum).[2] Servius calls the opening of the Aeneid, “urbs antiqua fuit”, a narrative beginning, beside the opening that states the subject and the invocation.[2][1]

In rhetoric it was used of the narration, the part of a speech that sets out the facts of the case, and of an example inserted into a speech;[2][5] Fortunatianus and Emporius use it so.[2][5] Late Latin narrativus “suited to narration” is the source of the English adjective narrative.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 310–380 AD – Donatus uses it of a statement in Terence's Andria, and has the adverb narrātīvē.[2][3]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius calls the first words of the Aeneid a narrative opening.[2][1][3]
  • mid-15th century – English takes it over as narratif, “biographical, historical”.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (grammar) Containing a narration, narrative: of a statement, of a kind of poetry, of the opening of a poem.[2][1][7]
  2. (rhetoric) Belonging to the narration, the part of a speech that sets out the facts; suited to telling.[2][5]

Usage notes

The adverb narrātīvē “in narrative form” is used by Donatus of Terence, who begins his play with the last events of the plot.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.