innocuus Latin · revision 33906

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=ine-pro *noḱ-eie-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɪnˈnɔ.ku.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [inˈnɔː.ku.us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''innocuus''' (feminine innocua, neuter innocuum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|in-|nocuus|t2=harmful]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline) The TLL thinks it is formed directly from [[m|la|in-]] and [[m|la|noceō|t=to harm]], hardly from ⟨nocuus⟩.^(TLL) De Vaan traces [[m|la|noceō]] to [[itc-pro|*nokeje-|t=to cause death]] and [[ine-pro|*noḱ-eie-|t=to make disappear, cause death]], with a cognate in [[sa|नाशय-|tr=nāśáya-|t=to make disappear, destroy]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Virgil,^(Köbler 2010) who in the ''Aeneid'' has the ships all settling unharmed on the shore.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^(Lewis & Short 1879) It means harmless: Ovid has fire letting someone pass harmlessly, Virgil a safe shore, and Pliny the Elder a kind of wolf harmless to man and a rain harmless to beans.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Passively it is unharmed, as Virgil's ships and Claudian's towers through which fire passes.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Of people it means blameless: Ovid calls Deucalion and Pyrrha both blameless, both worshippers of the gods.^(OLD 2012) The TLL notes that it has no comparative or superlative and that it is often spelled ''innocus'' in Christian inscriptions.^(TLL) Stelten gives "blameless, innocent" for Church Latin.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of unharmed ships and a safe shore.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of harmless fire and blameless people.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a wolf harmless to man.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 1590s – [[m|en|innocuous]] appears in English.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|harmless|alt=Harmless]], [[m|en|innocuous]]; safe.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Free from guilt, [[m|en|blameless]], innocent.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Unharmed, unhurt.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[innocuē]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[noceō]]

+ * [[innocēns]]

+ * [[innoxius]]

+ * [[en|innocuous]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}