Etymologically
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saturitas

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Forms

saturitās f (genitive saturitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin satur (“well-fed”) + -tās.[2][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *saturo- (“well-fed”), built on Proto-Indo-European *s(e)h₂-tu- (“satiation”), the root of satis (“enough”).[3] Cognates are Old Irish sáith (“fullness”), Ancient Greek ἅδην (hádēn, “to one's fill”) and Lithuanian sótus (“satisfied, full”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,[3] meaning fullness with food and drink: in the Captivi a character recalls a door from which he often came out drunk with fullness, saturitate.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it mostly Early and post-Augustan, where classical prose has satietās, and find it perhaps only once in Cicero.[5] Plautus also has a beating “till he has enough”, usque ad saturitatem, and makes sancta Saturitas the goddess of a parasite.[5][6][4] Cicero uses it of abundance, the plenty of all things needed for life and the worship of the gods.[2][5] Pliny the Elder uses it of the full depth of a dye, and concretely of the droppings of young swallows.[2][5][4] Tertullian speaks of the plenty of Egypt, and the Vulgate uses it of fullness and abundance.[5][6]

Medieval writers in Britain use it of fullness with food, and in a spiritual sense of the fullness of heavenly joys.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of fullness with food and drink.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of abundance.[2][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the depth of a dye.[2][8]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian speaks of the plenty of Egypt.[6][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Fullness, satiety with food or drink;[2][5] (concrete) excrement.[2][5]
  2. Abundance, plenty.[2][5][4]
  3. Full depth of a colour, saturation.[2][5]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Spiritual fullness.[7]

Usage notes

Bede distinguishes the two nouns: saturitas is said only of food, satietas of everything else.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de