universus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [uː.nɪˈwɛr.sʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [u.niˈvɛr.sus]^[1]

Forms

ūniversus (feminine ūniversa, neuter ūniversum, adverb ūniversē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from Latin ūnus (“one”) + versus (“turned”), literally “turned into one”.^[2][1][3] Gaffiot contrasts it with dīversus.^[4] The older form is ūnivorsus, and the Senatus Consultum on the Bacchanalia has the plural oinvorsei.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, in the Trinummus, uses the older form ūnivorsus.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant the whole of, entire, as Terence's slave says a woman will snatch away at once what a man saved ounce by ounce, and in the plural all without exception.^[2] It also meant taken as a whole, opposed to the individual parts, happening all at once, and affecting everyone, general, as Cicero's general burning of the whole city.^[2][3] The neuter ūniversum was all things, the whole world.^[6] Döderlein classes ūniversī with omnēs and cūnctī, a totality taken together, against quisque, each individual.^[7]

British medieval writers used the neuter plural of the sum of all things.^[8] English universe is recorded in the 1580s through Old French univers.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses ūnivorsus.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of the whole.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a general fire.^[2][5]
• 1580s – English universe is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Whole, entire.^[2][1]
2. In the plural, all without exception, all together.^[2][3]
3. Taken as a whole; universal, general.^[2][1]
4. Happening all at once.^[2]

Noun

1. In the neuter, the whole world, the universe.^[6][8]

Word family

• ūniversālis
• ūniversē
• ūniversī

Related words

• ūnus
• vertō
• English universe

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press