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passivus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word passivus

passivus1 spread about, indiscriminate

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
2nd century AD, inscriptions
Ultimate origin
Latin pandō
Etymology tree of passivus1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pando
Latin passivus
From the same root · passivus1
Latin pandus ← pando
Latin passum ← pando

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pasˈsiː.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pasˈsiː.vus][1]

Forms

passīvus (feminine passīva, neuter passīvum, adverb passīvē); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The adjective meaning “spread about” is from Latin pandō (“to spread out”), formed with -īvus on its participle passus (“spread out”).[2][3][4] The TLL compares passim “here and there”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from inscriptions of the 2nd century AD on, and then in Apuleius and Tertullian, who uses it ten times;[3] it describes what is found or happens everywhere.[3]

Semantic evolution

From “spread about, found everywhere” it came to mean “common, general”, as when Tertullian calls the name of god common to many,[5][6] and “promiscuous, jumbled”, as in Apuleius' heap of mixed seeds, seminum passiva congeries.[5][4] The OLD defines it as random, indiscriminate.[2] Niermeyer gives the medieval senses “common, ordinary” and “wandering”.[7] Used as a noun, passivi were vagrants or common people: Augustine mentions Roman vagrants called passivi.[5][4]

Timeline

  • 2nd century AD – It appears in inscriptions.[3]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius writes of a jumbled heap of seeds.[5][8]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for a name shared by many.[5][8]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses passivi of vagrants.[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Spread about, found everywhere; common, general.[5][4][6]
  2. Random, indiscriminate; jumbled, promiscuous.[2][5]
  3. (as a noun, plural) Vagrants; the common people.[5][4][6]

passivus2 passive

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation, Calque
First attested
23/24–79 AD, Pliny the Elder
Ultimate origin
Latin patior
Etymology tree of passivus2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin patior
Latin passivus
From the same root · passivus2
Latin compatior ← patior

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pasˈsiː.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pasˈsiː.vus][1]

Forms

passīvus (feminine passīva, neuter passīvum, adverb passīvē); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The adjective meaning “passive” is from Latin patior (“to suffer, undergo”), formed with -īvus on its participle stem ⟨pass-⟩.[2][1][9] In its grammatical sense it renders Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós), of which Wiktionary calls it a calque.[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Festus and Pliny the Elder on;[3] the OLD's earliest example is a grammatical definition of Pliny's, quoted by a later grammarian: passivum est quod alio faciente nos patimur, “passive is what we undergo when another acts”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its commonest use was the grammatical one, for passive forms of verbs and participles, very frequent in the grammarians.[3][4] In philosophy it meant capable of feeling or suffering: Apuleius calls the daemons animo passiva, subject in mind to the same emotions as people,[2] and Arnobius speaks of a soul that can suffer and perish.[5]

Medieval Latin kept the sense “liable to suffering, vulnerable”,[7][10] and Thomas Aquinas uses it for what is acted upon, as the opposite of activus.[11] English passive came in the late 14th century from Old French passif and directly from Latin, in the senses “capable of being acted upon” and in grammar.[9]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder defines the passive in grammar.[2][8]
  • 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Festus uses it of passive verb forms.[3][8]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius calls the daemons passive in mind, subject to emotion.[2][8]
  • 297–310 AD – Arnobius writes of a soul capable of suffering.[5][8]
  • late 14th century – English passive is recorded, from French and Latin.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Subject to passion or emotion; capable of feeling or suffering.[2][5]
  2. (grammar) Passive.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • passīvē
  • passīvitās

Usage notes

Lewis and Short cite the adverb passīvē for both words: “here and there” in Apuleius, and “passively” in a line of Lucilius quoted by Priscian.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  11. ^ Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
Cite this entry

“Passivus.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/passivus. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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