Etymologically
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poeticus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [poˈeː.tɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [poˈɛː.ti.kus][1]

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]

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