Etymologically
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penetralis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛ.nɛˈtraː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pe.neˈtraː.lis][1]

Forms

penetrālis (neuter penetrāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

The OLD and Wiktionary take it as from Latin penetrō (“to penetrate, enter”) + -ālis.[2][1] The TLL notes that most adjectives in ⟨-ālis⟩ come from nouns, and suggests a lost ⟨*peno-t(e)ro-⟩, whose first part meant “inside”, as in penātēs and penitus.[3] De Vaan files penetrō under penus (“provisions, store”) and thinks it may have been formed to penitus on the model of intrō2 beside intus.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius uses it of penetrating cold and fire,[2][5] and Cicero of hidden, innermost hearths.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that the sense “piercing” is ante-classical, in Lucretius, while “inner, innermost” is mostly poetic.[5] It is used of the inner parts of a house or temple, as Virgil's undying fire carried out from the innermost shrine.[5][2] The dī penetrālēs are the Penates, as in Valerius Maximus of the gods brought from Troy.[2] Its neuter, penetrāle, is the inner part of a house or temple.[2][5]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of penetrating cold and fire.[2][5][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of innermost hearths.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the innermost shrine.[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Piercing, penetrating.[2][5][1]
  2. Inner, innermost, inside a house or temple; the innermost part of.[2][5][1]
  3. dī penetrālēs: the Penates.[2]

Word family

  • impenetrālis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de