Etymologically
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negotiosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [nɛ.ɡoː.tiˈoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ne.ɡot.t͡siˈɔː.s̬us][1]

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

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