Etymologically
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penuria

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [peːˈnuː.ri.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [peˈnuː.ri.a][1]

Forms

pēnūria f (genitive pēnūriae); first declension[1] The spelling paenuria is also found.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is related to paene (“almost”), whose stem seems to have meant missing or lacking: de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that adverb, with paeniteō (“to cause regret”).[5][2][6][1] The further origin is uncertain: Pokorny connected a Sanskrit verb meaning to scorn, which does not fit the Latin vowel or the sense well, and Neri proposed a compound meaning “not entirely”, which de Vaan rejects.[5][7] Lewis & Short compared Ancient Greek πένομαι (pénomai, “to toil”) and πεῖνα (peîna, “hunger”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence,[5][7] who in the Adelphoe laments that there is now a great shortage of citizens of that kind.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means scarcity, dearth or want, often with a genitive, and especially want of the necessities of life, as Lucretius' want of food.[2][3] Of places and times it is a lack of material things, as Columella's poverty and bareness of soil, and also a deficiency of abstract things.[2] Church Latin keeps want, need, penury and scarcity.[8] English borrowed penury about 1400.[6]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a shortage of good citizens.[2][5][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of want of food.[3][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of poor, bare soil.[2][7]
  • c. 1400 – Borrowed into English as penury.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Scarcity, dearth, shortage, want.[2][3][8][1]
  2. Lack of material things in a place or time; a deficiency.[2]

Usage notes

Lewis & Short give inopia and egestās as near-synonyms.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson