positivus Latin · revision 4911
16 Oct 2026, 00:32 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=Gellius|origins=la pōnō}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [pɔ.sɪˈtiː.wʊs]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [po.s̬iˈtiː.vus]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''positīvus''' (feminine positīva, neuter positīvum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[af|la|pōnō|-īvus|t1=to put, place]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Gellius, in a chapter heading of the Attic Nights, discusses whether names are imposed by convention or given by nature.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Köbler dates Gellius c. 165 AD.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ Its first sense was arbitrarily imposed, settled by agreement rather than natural, as in Gellius' chapter on names, and Chalcidius speaks of justice and equity established by law.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) In grammar it was the positive degree of an adjective, as opposed to the comparative and superlative, in Cledonius and Priscian, and Macrobius uses the neuter as a noun for a noun.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+
+ In British medieval Latin it could mean egg-laying, of geese, in a record of 1441.^(DMLBS) [[en|positive]] is recorded in the early 14th century as a legal term for what is formally laid down, opposed to natural.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of names imposed by convention.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * c. 300 AD – Chalcidius uses it of established justice.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 6th century AD – Priscian uses it of the positive degree.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * early 14th century – English ''positive'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Settled by convention, arbitrarily imposed, as opposed to natural.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)
+ # ''(grammar)'' In the [[m|en|positive]] degree.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Laying eggs.^(DMLBS)
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[pono|alt=pōnō]]
+ * [[en|positive]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}