semianimis

Forms

sēmianimis (neuter sēmianime); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Also sēmianimus and sēmanimis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmi- (“half”) + anima (“breath, life”) + -is, with a second form in ⟨-us⟩.^[2][1] De Vaan traces sēmi- to Proto-Indo-European *sēm-i (“in one”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἡμι- (hēmi-, “half”), the meaning having shifted from “in one” to “one of the two” and so to “half”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has it in the Annals, of half-dead eyes that still twitch, a line Servius quotes on Virgil.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means half-alive or half-dead, of dying people and animals and their limbs: Virgil has fingers that twitch half-dead, and it is frequent in Livy, Seneca, Curtius and Suetonius.^[3][2] Lewis & Short find it mostly in poetry and post-Augustan prose.^[3] Some writers stress the life that remains, as Phaedrus of a hare and Lucan.^[2] In verse it is scanned as four syllables, and some editions write it sēmanimis.^[2][3] The form sēmianimus appears in Lucretius, in Cicero's poetry, in Sallust and in Juvenal.^[3] Stelten glosses it “half-dead, half-alive”.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of half-dead eyes.^[3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the form sēmianimus.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of twitching fingers.^[3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of half-dead men.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Half-alive, half-dead, nearly dead; still living, still conscious.^[2][3][1][6]

Related words

• anima
• sēmivīvus
• sēminex

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson