portentosus

Forms

portentōsus (feminine portentōsa, neuter portentōsum, comparative portentōsior, superlative portentōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The variant portentuōsus is often found in manuscripts.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin portentum (“portent, omen”) + -ōsus.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in On Divination, of monstrous births from beasts or humans.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It described what is strange and against nature, monstrous, and in a good sense what has supernatural or miraculous power.^[1] Lewis and Short note that it was not used of abstract things until after the Augustan period;^[4] then Seneca uses it of the extravagant style of Maecenas, and Pliny the Elder of the lies of the Greeks, of the art of magic and of the labyrinth as the most monstrous work of human expense.^[1][5] Suetonius has it of a boy with a tiny head and of Caligula's outlandish dishes.^[4]

British medieval writers used it, often as ⟨portentuosus⟩, of monstrous creatures and of outlandish, exotic clothes;^[6] Italian has it as portentoso.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of monstrous births.^[4][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Köbler lists Livy among its first writers.^[7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of an extravagant style of speech.^[1][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of Greek lies and of magic.^[1][5][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of Caligula's outlandish dishes.^[1][4][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Strange and unnatural, monstrous, portentous; in a good sense, miraculous.^[1][4]
2. Perversely devised, extravagant, fantastic (of human works and claims).^[1]
3. (Medieval Latin) Outlandish, exotic.^[6]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de