absorbeo

Forms

absorbeō (present infinitive absorbēre, perfect active absorbuī or absorpsī, supine absorbitum or absorptum); second conjugation^[1] Also spelled aps-.^[2] The perfect is absorbuī, and Lucan has absorpsī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- + sorbeō (“to suck in, swallow”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces sorbeō to Proto-Italic *sorfeie- and Proto-Indo-European *srobʰ-eie- (“to slurp”), an iterative, perhaps partly imitative of the sound.^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ῥοφέω (rhophéō, “to slurp, gulp”) and Lithuanian sur̃bti (“to suck”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has a courtesan who swallows up whoever she touches, like a seething sea.^[2][3] Lewis & Short cite a line of Naevius' Bellum Punicum in which the wave swallows legions.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to swallow down or devour, as Horace has a man who gulps down whole cakes at once,^[2][3] and of water to engulf: Cicero says the ocean could hardly have swallowed so much so fast.^[2][3] Of solid things it is to swallow up or soak up: Lucan has the earth swallowing the Tigris, Celsus bread soaking up tears, Pliny the Elder the best lentils absorbing the most water, and Curtius drought drying up all moisture.^[2][5] Figuratively Cicero says the tide of glory carried a man off, and that one person absorbs his whole speech.^[3][5] Church Latin has “swallow, gulp, absorb”.^[6] English absorb came from it in the early 15th century through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a courtesan who swallows up her lovers.^[2][4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the ocean engulfing things, and of a tide of glory.^[2][3][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of gulping down cakes.^[2][8]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan, of the earth swallowing a river.^[2][8]
• early 15th century – English absorb, through Old French.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swallow down, devour.^[2][3][1]
2. Of water, to engulf, submerge.^[2][1]
3. Of solid things, to swallow up; to soak up, absorb; of heat, to dry up.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) To carry off; to engross, take up wholly.^[3][5][1]

Word family

• absorptiō

Related words

• dēsorbeō
• exsorbeō
• obsorbeō
• persorbeō
• resorbeō
• sorbeō
• English absorb

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de