Etymologically
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stolidus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈstɔ.lɪ.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈstɔː.li.dus][1]

Forms

stolidus (feminine stolida, neuter stolidum, comparative stolidior, superlative stolidissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2] De Vaan suggests it may belong to an unattested verb meaning to be insensible, with the suffix ⟨-idus⟩, beside stultus (“stupid”), from Proto-Italic *stolto-.[2][1] Pokorny derives both from the root Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, set”), so that they first meant inert, from standing still; the OLD and Wiktionary compare Ancient Greek στελεός (steleós).[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[2][3] Ennius calls the race of the Aeacidae dull, mightier in war than in wisdom.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means insensible, dull, brutish or stupid, and of actions or qualities foolish, as Catullus wishes to rouse a dull man from his torpor and Livy speaks of a stupid and shameless demand.[4][5] Cicero applies it to inert causes that do nothing, such as place and time.[4] Lewis & Short give the first sense as immovable, whence slow and coarse.[5] Döderlein says that it marks a lack of reasonable moderation, a brutishness, where stultus is a lack of practical wisdom and fatuus a lack of taste.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][3]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of the Aeacidae.[5][3]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of dull torpor.[4][3]
  • c. 1600 – English stolid goes back to it.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Insensible, dull, brutish, stupid.[4][5][1]
  2. Of actions or qualities, foolish.[4]
  3. Of things, inert.[4]

Word family

  • stoliditās

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com