omnigenus

Forms

omnigenus (feminine omnigena, neuter omnigenum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin omnis (“all, every”) + -genus (“of a kind”), the second part from genus (“birth, kind”).^[2][3][4] The OLD and Georges also record an indeclinable ⟨omnigenus⟩, which was originally the adverbial accusative ⟨omne genus⟩, “of every kind”.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The declinable adjective is first found in Virgil's Aeneid, of monstrous gods of every kind.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a word of poetry and of post-classical prose.^[3] The TLL finds it after Virgil from the 2nd century on, and notes that its genitive plural is only ⟨-um⟩.^[4] An inscription of AD 120 has neighbours of every kind coming together;^[4] Gellius and Apuleius use it of learning and of poems of every kind, and Christian poets such as Juvencus and Paulinus of Nola of beasts and flocks of every kind.^[4][3]

British medieval writers used it of things of every kind and, as a plural noun, of people of all classes.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil writes of gods of every kind.^[3][4][8]
• 120 AD – An inscription uses it of a neighbourhood of every kind.^[4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of learning.^[3][8]
• c. 325 AD – Juvencus uses it of tribes of every kind.^[4][8]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella writes of the father of gods of every kind.^[3][4][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of every kind, of all sorts.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin, as a plural noun) People of all classes.^[7]

Related words

• multigenus

Usage notes

The indeclinable omnigenus, the same as omne genus, is found in Accius, Lucretius, Varro and Gellius;^[5][6] in Lucretius Lachmann reads omne genus instead.^[3][4]

A separate omnigenus “all-begetting”, from omnis and gignō, is used by Prudentius of God the Father.^[3][5][6][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson