Etymologically
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voluptas

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [wɔˈɫʊp.taːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [voˈlup.tas][1]

Forms

voluptās f (genitive voluptātis); third declension[1] The genitive plural is voluptātum, also voluptātium in Cicero, Livy and Seneca.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin volup + -tās, from the adverb “pleasantly”.[2][1] De Vaan derives volup (Naevius ⟨volop⟩) from Proto-Italic *we/olpi (“hopefully”), perhaps the neuter of a PIE noun Proto-Indo-European *welp-i- (“hope, pleasure”), comparing Ancient Greek ἔλπομαι (élpomai, “to expect, hope”) and ἐλπίς (elpís, “hope”).[4][3] Hamp instead reconstructed a compound of the roots of volō “to want” and apīscor “to reach”, “attainment of one's wish”, for which de Vaan sees no evidence.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:[5] voluptās nūllast nāvitīs … maior, “sailors have no greater pleasure …”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Voluptās is pleasure or delight of mind or senses, and as an endearment a person who gives joy (voluptās mea “my darling”).[2][1] Personified, Voluptās is Pleasure, painted on a tablet in Cicero.[2] In the plural it means organised pleasures, shows and entertainments, and it can mean sexual intercourse.[2]

In Church Latin it is pleasure and delight.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – First found in Plautus, also as an endearment: nē timē, voluptās mea.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the plural of entertainments offered to voters.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of sexual pleasure.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. pleasure, delight, enjoyment.[2][3][1][6]
  2. (endearment) Joy, darling.[2][1]
  3. (personified) Pleasure.[2]
  4. (plural) Entertainments, shows.[2]
  5. Sexual intercourse.[2]

Word family

  • voluptābilis
  • voluptārius
  • voluptātīvus
  • voluptificus
  • voluptuōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 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