exiguitas Latin · revision 34519

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=la agō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɛk.sɪˈɡu.ɪ.taːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [eɡ.ziˈɡuː.i.tas]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''exiguitās''' ''f'' (genitive exiguitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|exiguus|-tās|t1=scanty, small]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan holds that [[m|la|exiguus]] was derived from [[m|la|exigō]], a compound of [[m|la|agō|t=to drive]],^(de Vaan 2008) which he traces to [[itc-pro|*ag-e/o-]] and [[ine-pro|*h₂eǵ-e/o-|t=to drive, lead]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL finds it from Varro and Cicero on;^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) Varro writes of a shortage of milk (''propter exiguitatem lactis'').^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means smallness of size, as when Cicero writes that some pleasures are obscured by their smallness, or in Caesar, where the small size of a camp shows how few the soldiers are.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) More often it is scantiness or shortage of amount or number: of troops, gifts, food, the treasury's funds or crops in Caesar, Caelius, Quintilian, Columella, Suetonius and the jurists.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Caesar and Livy use it of shortness of time.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Ecclesiastical Latin it means scarcity, smallness or shortness,^(Stelten 1995) and Köbler lists medieval uses in charters and church councils.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a shortage of milk.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of smallness.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a small camp and of shortness of time.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of the poverty of the treasury.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|smallness|alt=Smallness]] of size; [[m|en|littleness]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # [[m|en|scantiness|alt=Scantiness]] of amount or number, [[m|en|shortage]], [[m|en|scarcity]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # [[m|en|shortness|alt=Shortness]] of time.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}