inconstantia Latin · revision 32487

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=ine-pro *steh₂-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''incōnstantia''' ''f'' (genitive incōnstantiae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|incōnstāns|-ia|t1=inconstant]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) [[m|la|incōnstāns]] is the negative of [[m|la|cōnstāns|t=steady]], from [[m|la|cōnstō|t=to stand firm]], a compound of [[m|la|stō|t=to stand]].^(Köbler 2010)^(de Vaan 2008) De Vaan traces [[m|la|stō]] to [[itc-pro|*sta-ē-je/o-|t=to stand]] and [[ine-pro|*sth₂-eh₁-ie/o-|t=to stand]], from the root [[ine-pro|*steh₂-]], comparing [[osc|staít|t=stands]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler and the OLD find it first in Cicero, who speaks of the opinions of the crowd, caught in the greatest inconstancy through ignorance of the truth.^(Köbler 2010)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Of people it is fickleness and changeableness of mind: Cicero asks what is more disgraceful for a man or for the senate than inconstancy and levity, and writes that no learned man ever called a change of plan inconstancy.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) It is also inconsistency in statements or opinions, as when he cannot wonder enough at the inconsistency of certain philosophers.^(OLD 2012) Of things it is changeableness or instability: Pliny the Elder uses it of the flickering sheen of a gem, and Quintilian of a restless brow and eyes.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Church Latin glosses it inconstancy, fickleness and wandering.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of popular opinions and of fickle men.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a flickering sheen.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of restless features.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Changeableness, instability, uncertainty; of light, flickering.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Of people, [[m|en|inconstancy]], [[m|en|fickleness]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Inconsistency in statement or opinion.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[inconstans|alt=incōnstāns]]

+ * [[constantia|alt=cōnstantia]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}