I.thinness, slenderness, fineness, smallness, tenuity (class.).
I. Lit.: “casurusne in conspectum videatur animus, an tanta sit ejus tenuitas, ut fugiat aciem,” Cic. Tusc. 1, 22, 50: “valetudo modo bona sit, tenuitas ipsa delectat,” slimness, id. Brut. 16, 64: “crurum,” Phaedr. 1, 12, 6: aëris, rarity (with siccitas), Sen. Q. N. 2, 10, 1: “lini,” Plin. 19, 1, 2, § 9: “chartae,” id. 13, 12, 24, § 79: “capillamenti,” id. 11, 37, 65, § 171: “liniam duxit summae tenuitatis per tabulam,” id. 35, 10, 36, § 81: “caudae,” id. 8, 33, 51, § 121: “cribri,” id. 18, 11, 27, § 105: “aquae,” thinness, clearness, purity, id. 31, 3, 23, § 38; cf. “sanguinis,” id. 11, 39, 92, § 226 et saep.—
B. Transf. (acc. to tenuis, I. B.), smallness, insignificance, poverty, indigence, scarcity: “Magii,” Cic. de Or. 2, 66, 265: “alicujus,” Cic. Fil. Fam. 16, 21, 4; Caes. B. G. 7, 17: “aerarii,” Cic. Off. 2, 21, 74: “earum rerum, quas terra procreet, vel ubertatem vel tenuitatem,” id. Div. 2, 13, 30.—
II. Trop., fineness, acuteness, minuteness in language: “limata tenuitas et rerum et verborum,” Cic. Fin. 3, 12, 40; id. Opt. Gen. Or. 3, 9: “(dialectica) sectas ad tenuitatem suam vires ipsā subtilitate consumet,” Quint. 12, 2, 13; 12, 10, 35; 10, 2, 23: “discriminum ac differentiarum tenuitates,” fine shades, Gell. 1, 3, 29.
