The corpus record — Latin

magnificentia

magnificentia · f

greatness

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Vitellius 1 · 4.15/10k
Pro L. Murena 3 · 2.84/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42 - 41 2 · 2.63/10k
Pro C. Rabirio Postumo 1 · 2.46/10k
De Baptismo 1 · 2.34/10k
Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo 1 · 2.1/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklürt von M. Weissenborn, book 45 2 · 1.52/10k
De Vita Beata 1 · 1.38/10k
De Inventione 4 · 1.21/10k
De Officiis 4 · 1.18/10k
Historiae 6 · 1.17/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 1-2 - 1 2 · 1.15/10k

Densest 12 of 38 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

magnĭfĭcentĭa — Lewis & Short

magnĭfĭcentĭa, ae, f.magnificus,

I greatness in action or in sentiment, nobleness, distinction, eminence, high-mindedness, magnanimity; in a bad sense, boasting, bragging, etc.

I In gen.

A Lit.: magnificentia est rerum magnarum et excelsarum cum anima ampla quadam et splendida propositione agitatio atque administratio, Cic. Inv. 2, 54, 163: et magnificentia et despicientia adhibenda est rerum humanarum, greatness of soul, id. Off. 1, 21, 72; id. Agr. 2, 8, 22.—

B Transf., of inanimate things, grandeur, magnificence, splendor, sumptuousness: epularum, Cic. Or. 25, 83: villarum, id. Off. 1, 39, 140: funerum et sepulcrorum, id. Leg. 2, 26, 66: liberalitatis, id. Rosc. Com. 8, 24: extra modum sumptu et magnificentia prodire, id. Off. 1, 39, 40: exhaustus magnificentiā publicorum operum, Liv. 1, 57: magnificentiae studium, Tac. A. 3, 55: publica magnificentia, Vell. 2, 1, 2.—

II Esp.

1 Rhet. t. t., an imposing style, sounding or dignified language: his tribus narrandi virtutibus adiciunt quidam magnificentiam, quam megalopre/peian vocant, Quint. 4, 2, 61 sq.—

2 In a bad sense: verborum magnificentia, pomposity of language, bombast, Cic. Lael. 6, 21: i hinc in malam crucem cum istac magnificentiā, Ter. Phorm. 5, 7, 37.—

3 In partic., greatness of talent, great artistic skill, Plin. 36, 5, 4, § 19.

In the wild

magnificentia Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni 3.12.23
magnificentia Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 8.3.3
magnificentiam Tacitus, Historiae 3.37
magnificentiam Vitruvius, De Architectura 2.1.2
magnificentia Livy, Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 6 p4
magnificentia Suetonius, Vitellius 2.2

6 of 96 attestations shown.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.