calamitas Latin · revision 731

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [kaˈɫa.mɪ.taːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kaˈlaː.mi.tas]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''calamitās''' ''f'' (genitive calamitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed with the suffix [[m|la|-tās]] from an unattested adjective going back to [[itc-pro|*kalamo-|t=damaged]], from [[ine-pro|*klh₂-em-o-|t=beaten, damaged]], from the root [[m|ine-pro|*kelh₂-|t=to strike]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)^(Pokorny 1959) The same adjective, with the negative prefix, is continued by [[incolumis]] “unharmed”.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012) The second ''a'' was not reduced under the influence of the first, as in [[alacer]].^(de Vaan 2008) The OLD also compares [[clades|alt=clādēs]] “disaster”.^(OLD 2012)

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+ Ancient writers linked it with [[calamus]] “stalk”, as damage to crops, a connection Etymonline calls folk etymology.^(TLL)^(Etymonline) Pompey wrote and pronounced it [[m|la|kadamitas]], and Isidore of Seville derived it from [[cado|alt=cadere]] “to fall”.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is attested from Plautus onwards,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who uses it of [[m|en|blight]] that has ruined a vegetable garden.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its first sense was agricultural: damage to crops from hail, blight or disease.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Donatus says that country people properly called hail ''calamitas'', and Servius applies it to rust on grain.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Comedy transferred it to people, as when Terence calls a courtesan “the ruin of our farm”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

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+ From this it came to mean any misfortune or ruin, and in military language a defeat, as often in Caesar.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) Lewis and Short note that it is frequent in prose and iambic verse but cannot fit the dactylic hexameter.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Through French it gave [[en|calamity]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of blight in a garden.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato includes a prayer against ''calamitates''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 190–159 BC – Terence calls a courtesan the ruin of a farm.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it for military defeats.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * early 15th century – English borrows it through French as [[en|calamity]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Damage to crops, [[m|en|blight]], hail; figuratively, a scourge.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # A misfortune, disaster, [[m|en|calamity]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(military)'' A defeat.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[calamitōsus]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[clādēs]]

+ * [[incolumis]]

+ * [[en|calamity]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}