incendiarius Latin · revision 4110
15 Oct 2026, 21:12 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=Seneca the Younger|origins=la incendō}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ɪŋ.kɛn.diˈaː.ri.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [in̠ʲ.t͡ʃen.diˈaː.ri.us]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''incendiārius''' (feminine incendiāria, neuter incendiārium); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[af|la|incendium|-ārius|t1=fire, conflagration]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) ''Incendium'' is from [[incendo|alt=incendō]] “to set on fire”.^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Seneca the Younger, in the Natural Questions, lists fire-raisers among unpunished criminals.^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates Seneca 4 BC–65 AD.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ As a noun it meant a fire-raiser or incendiary, as in Tacitus, where a conspirator tells Nero he began to hate him when he became an incendiary, and in Suetonius' life of Vitellius.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) As an adjective it meant causing fire: Pliny's ''incendiaria avis'', an ill-omened bird thought to bring fire, which some took to be any bird seen carrying a coal.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Vegetius has incendiary oil and Ammianus fire-bearing missiles.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)
+
+ Medieval Latin used it of arsonists, ranked with murderers and sacrilegious men.^(MLW)^(DMLBS) English ''incendiary'' is recorded about 1400 for a person who sets malicious fires, and of political agitators from the 1630s.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger uses it of fire-raisers.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions the ''incendiaria avis''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of Nero.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * c. 1400 – English ''incendiary'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Causing fire, [[m|en|incendiary]], ''incendiaria avis'', a bird of ill omen.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ===Noun===
+ # A fire-raiser, [[m|en|arsonist]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[incendium]]
+ * [[en|incendiary]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}