Etymologically
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ostentum

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Forms

ostentum n (genitive ostentī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of ostendō (“to show”), used as a noun.[2][3] ostendō is a compound of tendō (“to stretch”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tend- and Proto-Indo-European *ten-d(h)- (“to stretch”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[3] who lists it in the De inventione with lots, oracles, seers, prodigies and responses.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is an event that foreshadows the future, a portent or prodigy.[2] In the De divinatione Cicero puts it among the signs found in entrails, birds, lightning, portents, stars, dreams and the words of the frenzied.[5] In a wider sense it is a wonder or marvel: Caelius writes to Cicero that Appius as censor is working wonders, and Seneca speaks of trumpets, beams and other marvels of the sky.[2] Tacitus calls the deformed and scurrilous Vatinius one of the foulest monstrosities of that court.[2] The jurist Labeo, quoted by Ulpian, defines it as anything born or made against the nature of its kind.[2] An ancient distinction quoted in the TLL says that a portentum is born and keeps its nature, while an ostentum is suddenly shown to the eyes and withdrawn.[5] Church Latin has “prodigy” and the unusual form of a foetus.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of portents among the signs of the future.[5][3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of marvels in the sky.[2][3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of a monstrous courtier.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A portent, prodigy, a sign of the future.[2][1][6]
  2. A wonder, marvel, monstrosity.[2][1]
  3. (law) Anything born or made against the nature of its kind.[2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An unusual form of a foetus.[6]

Word family

  • ostentarius

Usage notes

Döderlein groups ostenta with prōdigia, portenta and mōnstra: all are appearances outside the ordinary course of nature that strike ordinary people and are interpreted by the soothsayer, while auguria and auspicia are signs in the ordinary course of nature that only the augurs and magistrates read.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper