necdum

Forms

necdum (not comparable); also nequedum^[2][3] The fuller form nequedum is rare: Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Caesar, Celsus, Tacitus and Fronto have it.^[3] Both are also written separately, and Livy once separates them with other words in tmesis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin nec (“and not”) + -dum (“still, for a while”).^[2][3] The TLL, following de Vaan and Dunkel, traces the particle -dum to Proto-Indo-European *duh₂- (“far, long”), the root of dūdum (“some time ago”).^[3][4] De Vaan takes neque from Proto-Italic *ne-kʷe (“and not”), Proto-Indo-European *ne (“not”) with the enclitic “and”, and nec partly as its shortened form.^[4] The grammarian Priscian notes that ⟨dum⟩ after ⟨nec⟩, ⟨nōn⟩ or ⟨haud⟩ is a temporal adverb, as in nōndum (“not yet”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds nequedum in Plautus, who writes of a girl who “does not yet” sleep with men, and the form necdum first in a line of Plautus' Pseudolus.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

As a conjunction it means “and not yet” or “but not yet”, as Cicero's “Cassius sent a silly letter, and Bibulus' had not yet arrived”.^[2] Repeated, it means “not yet either … or”, as Virgil's men who had not yet heard war trumpets or swords ringing on anvils, and with a following et or -que it means “while not yet … yet at the same time”.^[2] The TLL notes that necdum is frequent in verse from Catullus, Lucretius and Virgil on, often at the start of a line, and in prose from Cicero, Varro and Livy throughout Latin.^[3]

As a plain adverb, “not yet”, the same as nōndum, it is found in Seneca the Elder, Columella and Tacitus.^[2][5] Glossaries render it with Ancient Greek οὐδέπω (oudépō),^[3] and medieval writers use it as nōndum.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has nequedum and necdum.^[3][2][8]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has necdum.^[8][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it, often at the start of a line.^[2][3][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus as an adverb, “not yet”.^[2][8]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. And not yet, but not yet.^[2][9][1]
2. Repeated: not yet either … or.^[2]
3. With et or -que: while not yet … yet at the same time.^[2]

Adverb

1. Not yet, the same as nōndum.^[2][5][6][7]

Related words

• neque
• nōndum
• dūdum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.