From Proto-Italic * opnis , from Proto-Indo-European * h₃ep-ni-s ( “ working ” ) , from the verbal root * h₃ep- ( “ to work”, and hence “to possess ” ) . Related to ops and opus . It could also reflect the base Proto-Indo-European * h₁op- ( “ to work, to take ” ) (compare optō ), to which De Vaan gives a slight preference for semantic reasons.
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INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
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Lewis’s Elementary Latin Dictionary
1890 American Book Company edition; pinned Perseus XML digitizationomnis
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MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
omniscient
having total, universal, or complete knowledge; also an all-knowing narrator or being
- DATE
- 1598–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Medieval Latin / Indo-European
omniscient-, omnisciēns
knowing all things; all-knowing
- DATE
- Medieval or New Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Medieval Latin / Indo-European
omniscientia
all-knowledge or omniscience
- DATE
- Medieval Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
033
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
openprobableword prefix
Is the immediate Latin form Medieval Latin or New Latin?
The references differ. American Heritage labels omnisciēns Medieval Latin; Merriam-Webster labels the immediate form New Latin and analyzes it as a back-formation from Medieval Latin omniscientia.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Was omniscient assembled in English from omni plus science?
No. English borrowed a learned Latin all-knowing form; the compound analysis belongs inside Latin, not as a new English coinage from the modern noun science.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
RANK 171GRADE Aranked-word prefix
Omniscient was already an all-knowing word before English borrowed it.
The structure belongs to learned Latin: omni- plus the knowing family. English did not freshly bolt omni onto the modern noun science.
042
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
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