tunc

Forms

tunc (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from tum “then” and the deictic particle -ce, Old Latin ⟨*tunce⟩, like nunc “now”.^[2][3][1][4] ⟨Tum⟩ continues Proto-Indo-European *tóm, the accusative of the demonstrative ⟨*só⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Livius Andronicus;^[5] Plautus has nam tunc dentēs mihi cadēbant prīmulum, “for then my teeth were first falling out”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Tunc means “then, at that time”, in the past, the future or in general, and in a supposed case “in that event”.^[2][1] Iam tunc is “already then”.^[2] In early and classical Latin it is more emphatic than tum, especially against nunc or answering a cum clause; in Augustan verse it is used mainly before a vowel, and in later Latin the two words are hardly distinguished.^[2][3]

In New Latin it also means “therefore”.^[1] Church Latin has ex tunc “from of old”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 280–200 BC – First found in Livius Andronicus.^[5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nam tunc dentēs mihi cadēbant.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses iam tunc, “already then”.^[2][5]
• c. 67–127 AD – Juvenal uses it of the future: sī vēr tunc erit, “if it is spring by then”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. then, at that time (past or future).^[2][3][1][6]
2. iam tunc, already then.^[2]
3. In that event, in that case.^[2]
4. From then on, thereupon.^[1]
5. (New Latin) therefore.^[1]

Word family

• etiamtunc
• dunc

Related words

• tum
• nunc
• cum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson