ipse

From Latin ipse.

ipse

1. himself; herself; itself

• ipsus (Old Latin)

Inherited from Proto-Italic *e(s)peso, a compound pronoun whose p sound has an origin difficult to trace.

The p sound is traditionally explained as follows. In Old Latin when both parts were inflected, an epenthetic consonant, p, was inserted in the form *eum-sum, yielding *eum-p-sum. From these accusative forms the stems -pso and -psā were extracted and adapted to the nominative forms, thus *ipsus and *eapsa. Ultimately the paradigm was assimilated to that of iste, ille, with only later in the history of Latin neuter ipsum becoming ipsud.^[1]

De Vaan argues that the p need not necessarily be epenthetic, but instead it may be the particle -pe.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɪp.sɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈip.se]
• Hyphenation: ip‧se

ipse (feminine ipsa, neuter ipsum or ipsud, no comparative, superlative ipsissimus or ipsimus); demonstrative determiner (pronominal declension)

1. (emphatic) himself, herself, itself, the very, the actual quotations ▼
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 5.6:

     cōpiaque ipsa nocet

     and the very abundance [of choices] hurts

2. specific reference to the chief, the leader, the one, etc., used to distinguish the principal person from the subordinates quotations ▼
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 1.113–115:

     Ūnam, quae Lyciōs fīdumque vehēbat Orontēn,
     ipsius ante oculōs, ingēns ā vertice pontus
     in puppim ferit [...].

     One [ship], which was carrying the faithful Orontes and [his] Lycians – [and it happened] before the eyes of [Aeneas] himself – a huge wave [descending] from high above smashes upon [its] stern [...].
     (See: Aeneas; Lycia, Lycians.)

3. in person
4. for one's part, for his part, for her part
5. alone, by oneself, by one's own accord, of one's own nature quotations ▼
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.475–476:

     [...] tempus sēcum ipsa modumque / exigit, [...].

     [..., and] all by herself [Dido] works out the time and manner [of her own death], [...].
     (Literally, “with she herself;” in other words, Dido tells no one about her suicidal thoughts.)

6. just (with an adverb of time)

   nunc ipsum ― just now; at this very time

   tum ipsum ― just now; at that very time

7. exactly, precisely, just (with a numeral or for contrast)

Demonstrative determiner (pronominal declension).

¹Medieval Latin.

• “ipse”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ipse”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co. 14 phrases
• ipse in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016