Etymologically
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pernicitas

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Forms

pernīcitās f (genitive pernīcitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pernīx (“swift, agile”) + -tās.[1][2][3] De Vaan derives pernīx from perna (“haunch, leg”), though one would rather expect ⟨*pernāx⟩, since no other etymology offers itself.[4] He traces perna to Proto-Italic *persnā- and Proto-Indo-European *tspērsn-h₂- (“heel”), cognate with Ancient Greek πτέρνη (ptérnē, “heel”) and Sanskrit पार्ष्णि (pā́rṣṇi-, “heel”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,[3] in the Menaechmi: “my nimbleness deserts me, I am overgrown with old age”.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is quickness of movement, especially in running.[1] Cicero sets nimbleness beside speed, pernīcitās et vēlōcitās, and Livy speaks of swiftness of feet.[5][6] Caesar also has it,[5] Tacitus uses it of horses, and Gellius of people running in leaps with the liveliest nimbleness.[5] Apuleius opposes it to lameness.[6] Isidore says that pernīcitās belongs to the feet as swiftness belongs to wings.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of nimbleness lost in old age.[5][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, beside speed.[5][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of swiftness of feet.[5][3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of horses.[5][3]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore, of the swiftness of feet.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Quickness of movement, especially in running; nimbleness, agility, swiftness.[1][5][6]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes citus and celer, swiftness as mere quick motion, from vēlōx and pernīx, nimbleness as bodily strength and activity.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b 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 i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper