Etymologically
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repugnantia

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Forms

repugnantia f (genitive repugnantiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin repugnāns (“resisting; contradictory”), the present participle of repugnō (“to fight back, resist”), with the suffix -ia.[2][3][4] The verb is formed from re- and pugnō (“to fight”),[1] from pugna (“fight”), which de Vaan files, with pugnus (“fist”), among the derivatives of pungō (“to prick”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero, who uses it in his speeches and treatises for opposition, conflict and contradiction: in the Tusculan Disputations the confusion of wrong opinions and their conflict with one another rob the mind of health.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it names a state of opposition or antipathy, a conflict between principles (the honourable and the apparently useful in the De officiis), and, in logic, the contradiction between propositions in the Topica.[2][6] Pliny the Elder uses it concretely for a means of defence, the one nature gave to bees.[2][6] The TLL counts six instances in Cicero's prose and five in Pliny's Natural History; the word becomes commoner from the 3rd century on, above all in Augustine and Boethius.[4]

Medieval writers in Britain used it for fighting back and for resistance, including resistance to authority,[7] and Neo-Latin authors from Petrarch on for opposition.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for opposition, conflict and logical contradiction.[2][4][9]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a means of defence given to bees.[2][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it often.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Resistance, defence; a means of defence.[2][6]
  2. Opposition, antipathy; a conflict, as between principles.[2][10]
  3. A contradiction, inconsistency, incompatibility.[2][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Resistance or opposition, also against authority.[7]

Usage notes

In manuscripts it is confused with repugnantia, the neuter plural of the participle repugnāns (“contradictory things”).[4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier