Fromi-(indeterminatecorrelative prefix) +-am(correlative suffix of time). Originallyian in the earliest Esperanto texts; see-an for more.
iam
- sometime,ever (indeterminate correlative of time)
- once
- 2000, Antoine de Saint Exupéry,La Eta Princo, translated by Pierre Delaire from the French
Iam, kiam mi estis sesjara, mi vidis belegan bildon en iu libro pri la praarbaro, titolita "Travivitaj rakontoj".- Once, when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the primeval forest, titled "True Stories".
iam
- (reintegrationist norm)third-personpluralimperfectindicative ofir
FromProto-Indo-European*Hyā́m, acc.sg.f. of*Hyós(“who, which”).
iam (notcomparable)
- already
- now
27BCE – 25BCE,
Titus Livius,
Ab Urbe Condita6.42.2:
- Refecti decumum iidem tribuni, deinde Sextius et Licinius dē decemvirīs sacrōrum ex parte dē plēbe creandīs lēgem pertulēre. creātī quīnque patrum quīnque plēbis; gradūque eōjam via facta ad consulātum vidēbātur.
- Elected for the tenth time already, Sextus and Licinius the tribunes made a law for decemvirs of Rome's sacred rites to be issued in part from the people. Five were elected from the patricians, five others from the people; by this same move, a straight path to consulship hadnow been open to them.
8CE,
Ovid,
Metamorphoses15.871:
- jamque opus exēgī, quod nec Jovis īra nec ignis
nec poterit ferrum nec edāx abolēre vetustās.[1]- And now, I have completed a great work, which not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel, nor fast-consuming time can sweep away.[2]
- (asiam iam)doubly emphatic:now —now,thisverymoment,thisinstant,anytimenow, as ofnow,nowindeed
29BCE – 19BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid4.371–372:
- “Iam iam nec maxuma Iūnō / nec Sāturnius haec oculīs pater aspicit aequīs.”
- “Right now, neither do supreme Juno nor the Father [who is son of] Saturn regard these [matters] with the impartial eyes [of justice].”
Or, “Nolonger do ….”
- anymore
- soon
- (in transitions)now,again,moreover,oncemore
Iam means, generally, “at some point previous” or “since some point previous”. In English,already, the most common translation, is used only to emphasize that this point might have been expected to be later, whereasnow is used to emphasize that the statement was once false, even when the statement refers to a point in the past or future.Iam is used to express either. (Likewise, the most common Latin word fornow,nunc, denotes only the literal present moment.) Also, whereiam meansnow, it is often used in negative sentences, in which the most common English construction usesanymore.
However, note that wheniam is strengthened as"iam iam" or"iam nunc", the meaning shifts to the present and has a meaning equivalent tonunc(“now, at this exact moment”).
- “jam”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “iam”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “iam”, inGaffiot, Félix (1934),Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894),Latin Phrase-Book[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
- he has been absent five years:quinque annos orsextum (iam) annum abest
- to be middle-aged (i.e. between thirty and forty):tertiam iam aetatem videre
- those ideas have long ago been given up:illae sententiae iam pridem explosae et eiectae sunt (Fin. 5. 8. 23)
- as if the victory were already won:sicut parta iam atque explorata victoria
- iam inRamminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)),Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
- Sihler, Andrew L. (1995),New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press,→ISBN
iam
- third-personpluralimperfectindicative ofir
Fromimati, through elision of /m/.
iam ? (Cyrillic spellingиам)
- (colloquial)alternative form ofimam (first-personsingularpresent ofimati)
