Etymologically
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universus

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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

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