tantus

Forms

tantus (feminine tanta, neuter tantum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] An inscription has the spelling tamtus.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *tānto- (“so great”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂-nt-o-, beside the adverb tam “so”, as quantus stands beside quam.^[3][2] De Vaan thinks it probably continues a PIE type of adjective built on pronominal stems with the suffix *-nt-.^[3] Lewis and Short compared Sanskrit तावन्त् (tā́vant, “so great”).^[4]

Cognate with Oscan etanto and Umbrian etantu (“so great”), from *e-tanto-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius;^[3] the OLD's first example is a line of Naevius about the great noise the millstones made there.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Tantus means “so great” in size, degree or importance, and as the correlative of quantus “as great (as)”.^[2][4] It is followed by ut or a relative clause, “so great that”, and in the plural means “so many”.^[2] Its neuter gave the adverbs tantum and tantō.^[1] With multō or bis it means “many times, twice as much”.^[2]

In Medieval Latin the plural tantī is used for tot “so many”, and in tantum ut means “so that”.^[5] Old French tant “as much”, from the neuter, is in English tantamount.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of the noise of millstones.^[2][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ego multō tanta miserior quam tū, “I am many times more wretched than you”.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: nōn sum tantō ego … ingeniō, quantō Themistoclēs fuit, “I am not as gifted as Themistocles was”.^[2][7]
• 1640s – English tantamount, through Anglo-French.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of such size, so great, so much.^[2][4][1][8]
2. (with quantus) As great (as);^[2][4] tantō … quantō, so much … as.^[8]
3. (with ut or a relative) So great (that).^[2]
4. (plural) So many.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin, plural) So many, as many (= tot);^[5] in tantum ut, so that.^[5]

Word family

• tantillus
• tantīsper
• tantopere
• tantulus
• tantō
• tantum
• tantusdem

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson