Etymologically
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omnigenus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔmˈnɪ.ɡɛ.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [omˈniː.d͡ʒe.nus][1]

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]
  • 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