scienter

Forms

scienter (comparative scientius, superlative scientissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sciēns (“knowing”) + -ter,^[2][1][3] the present participle of sciō (“to know”) with the adverb suffix.^[1][3] De Vaan takes the verb to be probably a back-formation from nesciō (“not to know”); it goes back to Proto-Italic *skije/o- (“to know”), and if the sense “know” grew out of “distinguish, decide”, to a root meaning “cut off, incise”, Proto-Indo-European *skh₁-i(e/o)-.^[4] He compares Ancient Greek σχάω (skháō, “to slit open”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who in De oratore speaks of speaking scienter et perite, “skilfully and expertly”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its classical sense is skilfully, with expert knowledge.^[2][7] Cicero uses the comparative of Isocrates' skill in his field and the superlative of a man explaining how a celestial sphere worked;^[2][6] Caesar uses the comparative of people who dug tunnels under a siege ramp the more skilfully because they had large iron mines,^[2] and Nepos uses it of playing the pipes well.^[2][7]

The sense knowingly, consciously, appears in Pliny the Younger's Panegyricus, in an oath that calls down the anger of the gods if the speaker deceived knowingly,^[2][6] and Augustine sets it against ignoranter, unknowingly.^[7] This became the usual medieval sense:^[8][3] British writers used it for knowingly or wittingly and also for deliberately, and John of Salisbury writes in 1160 of a man who knowingly kept silent in a tumult.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of skilful speaking.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses the comparative of skilful tunnelling.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it for knowingly, against ignoranter.^[7][5]
• 1160 – John of Salisbury uses it for knowingly in a letter.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Skilfully, expertly, with knowledge.^[2][7][6]
2. Knowingly, consciously.^[2][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Deliberately, on purpose.^[3]

Related words

• sciēns
• scientia
• scientificus
• scientiola
• scīlicet
• sciō
• scīscō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f 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
4. ^ a b 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill