temerarius

Forms

temerārius (feminine temerāria, neuter temerārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from temere (“blindly, by chance, rashly”) with the suffix -ārius.^[2][3][4] De Vaan explains ⟨temere⟩ as a fossilised locative of a noun ⟨*temes-⟩ “darkness”, from Proto-Indo-European *temH-os- (“darkness”), cognate with Sanskrit तमस् (támas, “darkness”) and Lithuanian tamsà (“darkness”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] where a woodpecker tapping an elm is “not by chance”, an omen.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is happening by chance, accidental, which Lewis and Short call very rare, and in Celsus a method left to chance or risk.^[2][4] The usual sense is of people acting thoughtlessly, reckless or hasty, as Terence's drunken and reckless midwife, and in poetry of rash weapons, as Ovid's.^[2] Of conduct and plans it is reckless, impetuous or ill-considered, as Cicero's rash and sudden decision and the thoughtless stir of a Greek assembly.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “rash, thoughtless, casual”.^[6] English temerarious, “rash, reckless”, is from it in the 1530s.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an omen that is not by chance.^[2][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a reckless woman.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a rash decision.^[2][3]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of risky treatment.^[2][3]
• 1530s – English temerarious.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening by chance, accidental, casual; subject to risk.^[2][4][1]
2. Acting thoughtlessly, reckless, rash, hasty.^[2][1][6]
3. Of conduct or plans, impetuous, ill-considered.^[2]

Word family

• pertemerarius

Related words

• temerāriē
• temerātor
• temere
• temeritās
• temeriter
• temeritūdō
• temerō
• English temerity

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com