puritas

Forms

pūritās f (genitive pūritātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pūrus (“clean, pure”) + -tās.^[1][2][3] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *pūro- (“pure”) and Proto-Indo-European *ph₂ú-ro- (“clear, cleansed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary dates it from the 3rd century AD.^[1] Arnobius (297–310 AD) uses it in the plural of the harmless purity of waters.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant physical cleanness: Palladius uses it of wine, and Macrobius has it too.^[3][2] It was soon transferred to the purity of language, as when Jerome speaks of purity of speech and of a Ciceronian purity,^[2] and to moral purity and innocence: the Vulgate's “purity of my hands” in Psalm 17,^[2][3] Jerome's purity of morals, and in the Historia Augusta a pure, chaste way of life.^[2] Symmachus uses it in his letters for a person's integrity.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it could mean the plain truth,^[6] and British writers used it for freedom from admixture, of blood, air, light, metal or coin, and for ritual purity.^[7] English took it through Old French as purity about 1200.^[8]

Timeline

• 297–310 AD – Arnobius speaks of the purity of waters.^[2][5]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses it of a person's integrity.^[2][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of purity of speech and of morals.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has “the purity of my hands” in Psalm 17.^[2][3][5]
• end of 4th / beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of the clearness of wine.^[3][5]
• 533 AD – It appears in the Digest.^[5]
• c. 1200 – English borrows it, through Old French, as purite.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cleanness, purity, clearness (of water or wine).^[3][2][9]
2. Purity, correctness of style or language.^[2][1]
3. Moral purity, innocence, chastity.^[2][1][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) The plain, simple truth.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) Freedom from admixture (of blood, air, metal or coin); ritual purity.^[7]

Related words

• English purity

Usage notes

A second pūritās, “suppuration”, formed from pūs, appears once, of the blood, in Caelius Aurelianus (5th century AD).^{[2][10][3][5]}

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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.