Etymologically
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tunc

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtʊŋk][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtuŋk][1]

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

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