Etymologically
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pertinacia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛr.tɪˈnaː.ki.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [per.tiˈnaː.t͡ʃi.a][1]

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]

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