Etymologically
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offensus

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offensus1 offended; offensive

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔfˈfẽː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ofˈfɛn.sus][1]

Forms

offēnsus (feminine offēnsa, neuter offēnsum, comparative offēnsior); first/second-declension participle[2][1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin offendō (“to strike against; to offend”).[2][1][3] De Vaan explains that verb as a compound of an inherited verb ⟨-fendō⟩ “to strike”, kept only in compounds, from Proto-Italic *χw(e)nd- and Proto-Indo-European *gwhen-dh- (“to hit, strike”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[3] who writes of a man he knew to be hostile to himself and very close to Oppianicus.[2]

Semantic evolution

With the dative of a person it means offended, displeased, resentful towards someone.[2] It also means causing offence, odious: in De Inventione Cicero calls an argument offensive that hurts the goodwill of the hearers.[2] Wiktionary also gives the literal sense, struck, hit.[1]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of resentment and of an offensive argument.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Struck, hit.[1]
  2. Offended, displeased, resentful.[2]
  3. Causing offence, odious, offensive.[2][1]

Word family

offensus2 collision

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔfˈfẽː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ofˈfɛn.sus][1]

Forms

offēnsus m (genitive offēnsūs); fourth declension[2][1]

Etymology

The noun is from Latin offendō (“to strike against”) + -tus.[2][5][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Lucretius,[4][3] who says that without a swerve of the atoms no collision would arise and no blow among the first beginnings.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

It is a striking against, a collision or knock, and concretely what makes one stumble;[2][5] Lewis & Short find it in poetry and post-classical prose.[2][5] Statius uses it of a meeting with arms, and Lucretius, in a disputed reading, of life as a vexation.[5][6] Tertullian also has it.[5] The elder Seneca perhaps uses it of giving offence, but the passage rests on a conjecture.[2]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of colliding atoms.[6][4][3]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius.[5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A collision, knock, shock; what makes one stumble.[2][5][1]
  2. A meeting with something.[5]
  3. Offence, vexation.[5][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c 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 d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften