Etymologically
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reparabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛ.paˈraː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [re.paˈraː.bi.lis][1]

Forms

reparābilis (neuter reparābile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin reparō (“to restore, recover”) + -bilis,[2][3][4] though the TLL allows that it may instead have been formed back from irreparābilis.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ovid,[6] who writes that the loss of hair can be made good, reparabile damnum est, and that modesty once harmed can be restored by no art.[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it in verse from Ovid on, in Lucan and Persius, and in the prose of Seneca, the Panegyrici and later writers; it has no comparative or superlative.[5] Seneca says that people let themselves be charged with the cheapest things, which can certainly be got back, while no one can return lost time,[5][8] and Valerius Flaccus has a dying man looking back at the sky, which no treasure can regain.[5][8]

Poets also gave it an active sense, “renewing, restoring”: Calpurnius has a wood that, renewing itself, begins its summer shade, and Persius an echo that repeats a cry.[2][7] Ausonius uses it of the phoenix coming back to life.[3][8] Christian writers applied it to bodies restored in the resurrection, as Ambrose does.[5]

In British medieval Latin it meant “recoverable”, “that can be replaced” (Orderic Vitalis calls a man non reparabilis, irreplaceable) and, in theological disputes, “that can be restored to grace”.[9] English took reparable from French in the 1560s.[10]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a loss that can be made good.[5][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of things that can be got back.[5][6]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of a repeating echo.[2][6]
  • c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it of the phoenix.[3][6]
  • 1348 – A council's list of errors uses it of the damned as able to be restored to bliss.[9]
  • 1560s – English borrows reparable from French.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. That can be recovered or restored, retrievable, reparable.[2][8][7]
  2. (poetic) Renewing or restoring itself; of an echo, repeating.[2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) That can be restored to a state of grace.[9]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b c 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
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com