sterilitas Latin · revision 33863

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

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sterilitās''' ''f'' (genitive sterilitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ A spelling ''sterelitās'' occurs in the land surveyors.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sterilis|-tās|t1=barren]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan traces [[m|la|sterilis]] to [[ine-pro|*ster-|t=lacking, sterile]], cognate with [[grc|στεῖρα|tr=steîra|t=barren (cow, goat, woman)]] and [[sa|स्तरी|tr=starī́|t=a cow that is barren]]; whether a deeper verbal root lies behind it is disputed.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Cicero has it in the ''De divinatione'', of a mule that gave birth in spite of the barrenness of its nature, and of whether the fields will be barren or fertile, and in a speech on the agrarian law of land left uncultivated because it is barren.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is barrenness of women and female animals,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and the unfruitfulness of plants and land, as Velleius has of crops and Columella of vines.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny the Elder speaks of ''caelestis sterilitās'', weather that makes crops fail, and of the barrenness of fortune, that is poverty;^(Lewis & Short 1879) Suetonius and Pliny the Younger use the plural of years of bad harvests.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Medieval Latin it means a famine.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a mule's barrenness and of barren land.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella, of unfruitful vines.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, in Lamentations, of the barrenness of the earth.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * early 15th century – [[m|en|sterility]] appears in English, through Old French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|barrenness|alt=Barrenness]], [[m|en|sterility]] (of women and animals).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Unfruitfulness of plants or land; bad harvests, scarcity.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' [[m|en|famine|alt=Famine]].^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sterilis]]

+ * [[en|sterility]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}