penetrabilis Latin · revision 34247

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=la penetrō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [pɛ.nɛˈtraː.bɪ.lɪs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [pe.neˈtraː.bi.lis]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''penetrābilis''' (neuter penetrābile, comparative penetrābilior); third-declension two-termination adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|penetrō|-bilis|t1=to enter, penetrate]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan suggests that [[m|la|penetrō]] was formed to [[m|la|penitus|t=from within, deeply]] on the model of [[m|la|intrō#2]] beside [[m|la|intus]], and that the group may go back to a stem ⟨*pen-et-⟩, “food”, then “stock”, “interior”, related to [[m|la|penus|t=store of food]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL finds it from Virgil on,^(TLL) who has ''num mage sit nostrum penetrabile telum'', “whether my weapon is the more piercing”, in the ''Aeneid'', and in the ''Georgics'' the piercing cold of the north wind.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It has two opposite senses, active and passive.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Actively it means piercing, penetrating: Ovid has Jupiter's piercing thunderbolt, Manilius uses it of the flood of the Ocean, Seneca of a penetrating warmth, and Apuleius of a piercing sound; figuratively it means acute or trenchant, as Apuleius' penetrating thought and Gellius' biting complaint.^(OLD 2012) Passively it means that can be pierced, penetrable, as Ovid's body that no weapon can pierce; then permeable, as Seneca's earth that the winds pass through; and figuratively open to the mind, as Manilius' reason to which the sky itself is penetrable.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Servius and Priscian distinguish it from [[penetrālis]], keeping that word for what is innermost or what pierces and this one for what is easily pierced, and the manuscripts often confuse the two.^(TLL) In Ecclesiastical Latin it means sharp, piercing, or able to be penetrated.^(Stelten 1995) English took it over in the early 15th century as [[m|en|penetrable]], first in the sense penetrating.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a piercing weapon and piercing cold.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in both the active and the passive sense.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Manilius uses it figuratively of the sky open to reason.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 400 AD – Servius distinguishes it from ''penetrālis''.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * early 15th century – English borrows it as [[m|en|penetrable|alt=penetrable]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|piercing|alt=Piercing]], [[m|en|penetrating]]; of cold, heat, sound and the like, that penetrates.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Figuratively, penetrating, [[m|en|acute]], trenchant.^(OLD 2012)

+ # That can be pierced, [[m|en|penetrable]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Allowing passage, [[m|en|permeable]]; figuratively, accessible to the mind or will.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[impenetrābilis]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}