immerens Latin · revision 34236

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la mereō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɪmˈmeː.rẽːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [imˈmɛː.rens]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''immerēns''' (genitive immerentis); third-declension one-termination adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|in-|merēns|t1=not|t2=deserving]], the negative prefix with the present participle of [[m|la|mereō|t=to earn, deserve]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb, which he traces to [[itc-pro|*mer-ē-|t=to earn]] and, with a query, to [[ine-pro|*(s)mr-eh₁-|t=to earn]], comparing [[grc|μείρομαι|tr=meíromai|t=to receive one's share]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) whose ''Curculio'' has ''male mereri de immerente inscitia est'', “to treat badly someone who does not deserve it is folly”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means not deserving punishment or harm, blameless, innocent: Terence has a wrong done to someone ''immerenti'', and Catullus speaks of a cough that his belly gave him, ''non immerenti'', one who had deserved it.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lucretius splits it as ''inque merentes'', of the innocent struck by lightning, and Horace has a tree fall on the head of its blameless master.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Conte 2010) Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Valerius Maximus applies it to things, ''quaedam immerentia'', and also has the adverb ''immerenter'', undeservedly.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) In Fronto and Cyprian it means undeserving of a benefit, unworthy.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) In a 1555 statute of St John's College, Oxford, the writer calls himself ''immerentem et indignum'', undeserving and unworthy.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of someone who does not deserve ill treatment.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius splits it as ''inque merentes''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a blameless master.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it of those undeserving of help.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Not deserving punishment or ill treatment, unoffending, [[m|en|blameless]], [[m|en|innocent]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Not deserving a benefit, [[m|en|unworthy]].^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[mereō]]

+ * [[immeritus]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis and Short compare it with [[indignus]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}