Etymologically
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raritas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈraː.rɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈraː.ri.tas][1]

Forms

rāritās f (genitive rāritātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rārus (“loose, sparse, rare”) + -tās.[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no convincing origin for rārus.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it for the loose, sponge-like texture of the lungs.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that the word occurs only in prose, from Cicero on, and is frequent in Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder.[3] Its first sense was looseness of texture, as of the lungs or of gaps between the teeth, and by extension a gap or cavity.[2][5] It then meant thinness of spread, sparseness, as of trees,[2] and the rarity or infrequency of something, and an exceptional case, “a rarity”.[2]

English took it over as rarity, first in the sense of thinness or porosity in the early 15th century and in the sense of scarcity from the 1550s.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the porous texture of the lungs.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for the rarity of some diseases.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for sparse trees and for an exceptional case.[2][6]
  • early 15th century – English borrows it as rarity, “thinness, porosity”.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Looseness of texture, a porous structure.[2][5]
  2. A gap, cavity or interstice.[2]
  3. Thinness of spread, sparseness.[2]
  4. Rarity, infrequency.[2][1]
  5. A rare thing, an exceptional instance.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com