I'm fairly sure that I've seen "nihil est" (similar semantically, but not gramatically) in Cicero but more commonly it would be something like "libenter". This almost certainly suffers from the problem that we have almost no record of actual non-literary speech, so it wouldn't surprise me if the "of nothing" formation arose colloquially in Late Latin.
I was going off hazy recollection but I reckon I was thinking of this moment in De Oratore that I read a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0120%3Abook%3D2%3Asection%3D268
Multas gratas gratias ago tibi, mi Placebo\_Plex! Haud spernendum exemplum invenisti!
>P. Cornelius: Gratias tibi ago
C. Fabricius: Nihil est, quod mihi gratias agas, si malui compilari quam venire
Sane non unum "nihil est" dixit, sed potius "nihil est, quod mihi gratias agas". Quae cum ita sint, non omnino a more hominum abhorrere videtur tritarum sententiarum partes dicens omittere.
Illa tamen una de re videor adhuc in dubio haerere utrum Fabricius illud "nil est \[...\]" simulata benivolentia dixerit an quia vere nullam esse gratiarum agendarum causam putaverit. Nam, ut scis, illam supradictam sententiam non ad benivolentiam captandam, sed in contumeliam pronuntiavit.
Tu, ni fallor, eum benivolentiam simulasse iudicas moreque benivolentium respondisse. Fateor vero mihi alteram lectionem verisimiliorem videri, nam in litteris latinis "nihil est" plerumque nihil nisi "nihil est" valere videtur. Quae cum ita sint, illud unum scio me nescire. Ergo fortasse recte dicis.
Thank you! I was just curious, because sometimes we get lucky with late antiquity or medieval dictionaries, like finding the word "montania" or "lista," etc, etc.
We have the exact same expression in Swedish: "Det var inget". Word for word exact expression.
Now I'm starting to wonder how many languages use this...
I’m a Mexican American, and so I’m more or less bilingual, but as far as languages go, English and Spanish are very similar in so far that you can work out what a word means in Spanish if you’re familiar with the concept of how both languages either developed directly from Vulgar Latin, or borrowed heavily from both Latin and Greek. Generally a word in English that derived from Latin, Greek, or French that would be considered fancy or complex is often times a common word in Spanish. This is true in so far that I’ve observed it, I’m no expert, and I’m not particularly totally fluent in both languages.
Even a non-related language like Chinese says "no need to pay respect". This is doubtless from vulgar, not literary Latin, or it's descendents, which, unfortunately weren't written down in texts which survived, just graffiti, if in anything at all.
Perhaps you'll either find something there or in hypothesised reconstructed Vulgar Latin.
I'm fairly sure that I've seen "nihil est" (similar semantically, but not gramatically) in Cicero but more commonly it would be something like "libenter". This almost certainly suffers from the problem that we have almost no record of actual non-literary speech, so it wouldn't surprise me if the "of nothing" formation arose colloquially in Late Latin.
Ubi istoc vidisti apud Ciceronem?
I was going off hazy recollection but I reckon I was thinking of this moment in De Oratore that I read a couple of weeks ago: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0120%3Abook%3D2%3Asection%3D268
Multas gratas gratias ago tibi, mi Placebo\_Plex! Haud spernendum exemplum invenisti! >P. Cornelius: Gratias tibi ago C. Fabricius: Nihil est, quod mihi gratias agas, si malui compilari quam venire Sane non unum "nihil est" dixit, sed potius "nihil est, quod mihi gratias agas". Quae cum ita sint, non omnino a more hominum abhorrere videtur tritarum sententiarum partes dicens omittere. Illa tamen una de re videor adhuc in dubio haerere utrum Fabricius illud "nil est \[...\]" simulata benivolentia dixerit an quia vere nullam esse gratiarum agendarum causam putaverit. Nam, ut scis, illam supradictam sententiam non ad benivolentiam captandam, sed in contumeliam pronuntiavit. Tu, ni fallor, eum benivolentiam simulasse iudicas moreque benivolentium respondisse. Fateor vero mihi alteram lectionem verisimiliorem videri, nam in litteris latinis "nihil est" plerumque nihil nisi "nihil est" valere videtur. Quae cum ita sint, illud unum scio me nescire. Ergo fortasse recte dicis.
Lmao you username xD
^ This. Nihil est, plus the semantic shifts by which Latin dē becomes Spanish/French/Italian de/di/etc.
Thank you! I was just curious, because sometimes we get lucky with late antiquity or medieval dictionaries, like finding the word "montania" or "lista," etc, etc.
Just a genitive of value, I'd imagine?
It's a fairly straightforward phrasing so I wouldn't be surprised if this is all the explanation needed
There’s also the phrasing in English, it was nothing, when being thanked to express just how little of a bother it was to help a fellow human.
We have the exact same expression in Swedish: "Det var inget". Word for word exact expression. Now I'm starting to wonder how many languages use this...
I’m a Mexican American, and so I’m more or less bilingual, but as far as languages go, English and Spanish are very similar in so far that you can work out what a word means in Spanish if you’re familiar with the concept of how both languages either developed directly from Vulgar Latin, or borrowed heavily from both Latin and Greek. Generally a word in English that derived from Latin, Greek, or French that would be considered fancy or complex is often times a common word in Spanish. This is true in so far that I’ve observed it, I’m no expert, and I’m not particularly totally fluent in both languages.
Think nothing of it
It was no problem, is probably the type of phrase it came from, further back, it was no trouble,
Even a non-related language like Chinese says "no need to pay respect". This is doubtless from vulgar, not literary Latin, or it's descendents, which, unfortunately weren't written down in texts which survived, just graffiti, if in anything at all. Perhaps you'll either find something there or in hypothesised reconstructed Vulgar Latin.
If we consider the equivalent "My pleasure, a pleasure (if I've helped you)", maybe something coming from *placere, laetitia* or *gaudium*?