negotiosus

Forms

negōtiōsus (feminine negōtiōsa, neuter negōtiōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Plautus' Stichus has the spelling negōtiossus.^[2][3] Later manuscripts sometimes write negōc-.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin negōtium (“business”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reports Benveniste's view that negōtium was from the start a compound of ⟨nec⟩ “not” and ōtium (“leisure”), meaning “non-leisure”, perhaps modelled on Ancient Greek ἀσχολία (askholía, “lack of leisure; occupation”); the word for leisure itself has no known etymology.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[5][6] first in the Mercator: negōtiōsī erāmus nōs nostrīs negōtiīs, “we were busy with our own business”.^[2][4] In the Stichus a character who says he will knock the cobwebs off the doors gets the reply edepol rem negōtiōsam!, “a laborious job indeed!”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also uses it humorously, of not wanting a “busy” back, that is one kept busy with a beating.^[4][7] Cicero calls a province not so much popular as laborious and troublesome, and Sallust writes that the wisest men were the busiest.^[2][4] Tacitus uses the plural as a noun for men of business and contrasts negōtiōsī diēs, working days, with sacred days;^[2][7] Celsus uses it of business activity.^[2][7] Augustine has a superlative, of a very busy man.^[4][7]

Medieval British writers keep the senses busy and laborious;^[8] Peter of Blois calls a scholar's work ōtium negōtiōsum, a busy leisure.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of busy people and a laborious task.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls a province laborious.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust writes that the wisest were the busiest.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of working days.^[2][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the superlative.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people, busy, occupied, active;^[2][4][7] (plural, as a noun) men of business.^[2][4][7]
2. Of tasks, laborious, troublesome.^[2][4]
3. Of or for business; of days, working.^[2][7]

Word family

• negōtiōsitās

Related words

• negōtiālis
• negōtiāns
• negōtiātiō
• negōtiātor
• negōtiolum
• negōtior
• negōtium

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 k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press