Etymologically
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radicalis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [raː.diːˈkaː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ra.diˈkaː.lis][1]

Forms

rādīcālis (neuter rādīcāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rādīx (“root”) + -ālis.[1][2][3] Conte calls it a Late Latin word.[4]

The TLL connects it with a group of Romance words for roots, stumps and weeds, such as Middle French racheau and the late Spanish raigal, though Wartburg takes the Spanish word to come from raíz (“root”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Augustine, in a figurative sense: “serving as a root”, primordial; he speaks of a Christian society that is in a way native and rooted in the Catholic Church, and of obedience practised as a root virtue.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Augustine and the theologians after him also use the adverb rādīcāliter “from the root”, of the whole human race condemned at its root in Adam.[2]

In Medieval Latin it took on concrete senses: “of the root of a plant”, then of bodily organs and functions “vital, principal” (the neuter plural for the vital organs), and in general “belonging to the root, fundamental, essential”.[6] Ecclesiastical Latin glosses it “rooted, having roots, essential”.[7] English borrowed it in the late 14th century as radical, first meaning “originating in the root”.[8]

Timeline

  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it figuratively, of something that serves as a root.[2][3]
  • 5th century AD – Julianus Pomerius uses the adverb rādīcāliter of Adam's descendants.[2][3]
  • before 1250 – Köbler records its medieval use from Latham.[3]
  • late 14th century – Borrowed into English as radical.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (Late Latin, figurative) Serving as a root, rooted, primordial.[2][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Of or belonging to the root of a plant.[6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Of a bodily organ or function: vital, principal; as a neuter plural noun, the vital organs.[6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Belonging to the root of a thing; fundamental, essential.[6][7]

Word family

  • rādīcāliter
  • rādīcātus
  • rādīcescō
  • rādīcō
  • rādīcor
  • rādīcōsus
  • rādīcula
  • rādix
  • English radical

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com