Etymologically
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tantus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtan.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtan.tus][1]

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

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