Etymologically
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omnimodis

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Forms

omnimodīs (adverb, not comparable)[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin omnis (“all, every”) + modus (“way, manner”), a fusion of the ablative plural phrase ⟨omnibus modīs⟩, “in all ways”.[1][3][4] Lewis & Short compare multimodīs and mīrimodīs, made in the same way.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain author is Lucretius, who uses it several times.[3][2][5] A reading omnimodīs in Plautus' Stichus (line 684), adopted by Scaliger and Lindsay for the metre, is only a correction: the manuscripts have omnibus modīs.[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a word of Lucretius and of Late Latin.[2] The TLL finds it often in prose from Apuleius onwards, but in poetry only in Cyprianus Gallus;[3] Georges adds Ambrose and Cassiodorus.[4] Ancient glossaries explain it as omnīnō, “altogether”.[3] In Medieval Latin it meant “entirely, in every respect”, and with a negative “in no way”.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it several times.[2][5]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the Florida.[2][4][5]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus has it in the Variae.[4][5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. In every possible way, by all means.[1][4]
  2. Wholly, entirely, altogether.[2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) (with a negative) in no way, not at all.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre