ablaqueo

Forms

ablaqueō (present infinitive ablaqueāre, perfect active ablaqueāvī, supine ablaqueātum); first conjugation^[1] Varro has the archaic form ablacuō.^[2][3] Georges also gives oblaqueō.^[2]

Etymology

Its formation is disputed.^[3][4] The OLD and Wiktionary analyse it as from Latin ab- + laqueō (“to ensnare”), and Lewis & Short take it from laqueus in the sense “hollow”.^[3][1][5] The TLL and Georges derive it from ab and lacus (“trench, basin”), and the TLL thinks it perhaps a reshaping of Varro's older ⟨ablacuō⟩.^[4][2] De Vaan finds no etymology for laqueus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato has it in On Agriculture, of loosening the soil round olive trees.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that only the writers on farming use it.^[4] It is to loosen and weed the soil at the roots of trees, or to turn up the earth round a tree to make a trench for water,^[3][5] which Georges explains as done to destroy weeds and help growth, or to cut away surface roots.^[2] Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of the roots of vines and trees.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, of olive trees.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro has ablacuō.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of roots.^[5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of trees.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To loosen and weed the soil round the roots of (trees or vines); to make a trench round a tree for water.^[3][5][1]

Word family

• ablaqueātiō

Related words

• laqueus
• lacus
• English ablaqueate

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de