Etymologically
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petulantia

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Forms

petulantia f (genitive petulantiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin petulāns (“aggressive, insolent”) + -ia.[2][3][1] De Vaan lists petulāns among the derivatives of petō (“to make for, attack”).[4] Cicero already derived it from petō, as he derived procācitās (“forwardness”) from procō (“to ask”).[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] who uses it of heedlessness of the tongue.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is impudent or boisterous aggressiveness, effrontery or waywardness;[2][5] Cicero says it belongs to young men more than to old.[2][5] Of speech it is offensive rudeness, as in a letter of Caecina to Cicero and in Propertius, and Gellius uses the plural of the insults with which Naevius had hurt many.[2] Of sexual conduct it is wantonness or immodesty, as in Cicero's Verrines and in Petronius.[2] Columella uses it of the viciousness of horned animals.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a heedless tongue.[5][4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of wanton aggression.[2][5][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of vicious horned animals.[5][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius of Naevius' insults.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Impudence, aggressiveness, effrontery, petulance.[2][5][1]
  2. Of speech, offensive rudeness; in the plural, insults.[2][5]
  3. Wantonness, immodesty.[2][1]
  4. Carelessness, heedlessness.[5]
  5. Of animals, viciousness.[5]

Usage notes

Döderlein says that the petulans offends against modesty by wantonness, mockery and needless attack, the procax by importunity and pushing forwardness, and the protervus by impetuous and haughty recklessness.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 j k l 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
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper