pertinacia

Forms

pertinācia f (genitive pertināciae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pertināx (“persistent, obstinate”) + -ia,^[2][1][3] the adjective being formed from per- and tenāx (“holding fast”).^[1] The verb teneō (“to hold”) goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[4] Varro derived it from pertendō (“to persist”).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Terence.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is obstinacy, stubbornness or defiance, its more frequent sense, and also, without blame, dogged determination, as Vitruvius' king Demetrius, called Poliorcetes for his persistence.^[2][7] Seneca uses it of the persistence of a condition, a long frost.^[2] Lewis & Short give persevērantia and pervicācia as synonyms.^[7]

Church Latin glosses it “obstinacy, pertinacity, constancy, firmness”.^[8]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro derives it from pertendo.^[5][3][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of determination.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a long frost.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Obstinacy, stubbornness, defiance.^[2][7][1]
2. Determination, perseverance, constancy.^[2][7][1]
3. Persistence of a condition.^[2]

Related words

• pertināx
• tenāx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson