Etymologically
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simplicitas

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Forms

simplicitās f (genitive simplicitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin simplex (“simple, single”) + -tās.[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨simplex⟩ to Proto-Italic *sm̥-plak- (“simple”), with the prefix Proto-Indo-European *sm̥- (“one”) also seen in semel (“once”) and semper (“always”), cognate with Sanskrit सकृत् (sakṛ́t, “once”) and Ancient Greek ἅπαξ (hápax, “once”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Lucretius,[3][4] who says the first bodies are solid in their singleness.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “singleness, unity”, and in Juvenal singleness of mind, a wife's devotion to one man.[2] It is rare until after Augustus and is not found in Cicero.[5] It then meant plainness and lack of elaboration, as Ovid's “once there was rough simplicity, now Rome is golden”, and above all an open, guileless nature: Livy has boyish candour, and also frankness and good humour used to calm someone's anger.[2] It could also be naivety, lack of sophistication, as in the elder Seneca.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “simplicity”.[6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the singleness of atoms.[2][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of boyish candour.[2][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of simple manners.[2][4]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of singleness of mind.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Singleness of nature, unity; singleness of mind.[2]
  2. Plainness, simplicity.[2][1][6]
  3. An open, guileless nature, ingenuousness; naivety.[2][1]
  4. Frankness, openness, candour.[2][1]

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 l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson