speciose

Forms

speciōsē (comparative speciōsius, superlative speciōsissimē).^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin speciōsus (“good-looking, showy”) + -ē.^[1][3] The adjective is formed from speciēs (“appearance, look”) with -ōsus,^[1] and that noun from speciō (“to look at”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-ie/o- (“to look”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in the Bellum Africum,^[5] where forces are drawn up quam speciosissime potuit, as impressively as possible.^[1][2] The OLD's first quotation in the sense “gracefully” is from Horace's Epistles: no one handles arms more gracefully.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

It means attractively or gracefully,^[1][6] and Quintilian applies it to literary style, saying that Virgil used a figure most beautifully in his bees and his Daedalus.^[1] More often it means showily or impressively: Livy asks whether a horse is to be more handsomely caparisoned than a wife is dressed, and Valerius Maximus says that Cornelius Rufinus held the dictatorship with great distinction.^[1][7] In Florus it is “speciously”, with a finer pretext: the Samnites are attacked not on one's own behalf but, more plausibly, on behalf of allies.^[1][2]

Medieval writers in Britain use it of things beautifully made and of splendid display.^[3]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 1st century BC – The Bellum Africum uses it of troops drawn up impressively.^[1][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the comparative of handling arms gracefully.^[1][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a richly caparisoned horse.^[1][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of literary style.^[1][5]
• c. 120 AD – Florus uses it in the sense “speciously”.^[1][5]
• 940 – A charter says that every creature was beautifully formed in the beginning.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Attractively, gracefully; elegantly (of style).^[1][6][2]
2. Showily, splendidly, impressively.^[1][7][8]
3. Speciously, plausibly.^[1][2]

Related words

• speciōsus
• speciēs
• speciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T. (1890), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: American Book Company