poeticus

Forms

poēticus (feminine poētica, neuter poēticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Lucilius has the Greek form poeēticon.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ποιητικός (poiētikós, “creative; poetic”),^[2][1][4] from ποιητός (poiētós, “made”), from ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato's Carmen de moribus says there was no honour for the poetic art,^[2][6] and the TLL finds it in prose from Cato on.^[3] Lucilius has it in the Greek sense “creative”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is what belongs or suits poetry: Varro speaks of poetic words, which delight him more than he uses them,^[2] Cicero praises Nicander for writing on farming with a poetic gift,^[2] Livy calls some traditions fitter for poetic tales than for sound records,^[2] and Quintilian speaks of poetic licence.^[2] It is also what is told by the poets, as Cicero's gods of the poets and Juvenal's poetic storm.^[2] Figuratively Cicero has poetic chariots and Horace poetic honey.^[2] The feminine poētica or poēticē is the art of poetry, in Cicero and Nepos,^[7] and the adverb poēticē is found from Pliny the Younger on.^[7] English poetic (1520s) was formed from poet or came through French from it.^[5]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, of the poetic art.^[2][4]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, “creative”.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of poetic words and the gods of the poets.^[2][7][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of poetic tales.^[2][4]
• 1520s – English poetic.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Creative.^[2]
2. Of or suited to poetry, poetic.^[2][7][1]
3. Told or described in poetry.^[2][7]

Related words

• poēta
• poēma
• poēsis
• English poetic

Usage notes

The feminine used as a noun, poētica or Greek poēticē, is the art of poetry.^[7][6]

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 j k l m n o p q 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press