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absum

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈap.sũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈab.sum][1]

Forms

absum (present infinitive abesse, perfect active āfuī, future active participle āfutūrus); irregular conjugation, suppletive, no passive, no supine stem except in the future active participle, no gerund[1] It is also spelled apsum.[2] Cato has the subjunctive absiet.[2] The perfect is āfuī, better than abfuī.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ab- + sum (“to be”), “to be away from”.[2][3][1] De Vaan lists it among the compounds of sum, which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”).[4] The TLL compares Ancient Greek ἄπειμι (ápeimi).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan lists abesse among the oldest compounds of sum.[4] Plautus asks quid agat, sī apsīs longius?, “what is he to do if you are farther away?”, and Cato gives distances with it.[2]

Semantic evolution

Abesse is “to be away, absent” (euphemistically, of exile), of things “to be missing”, and “to stay away from, take no part in”; of advocates it is to fail to support a client.[2][3] It gives distance in space and time, “to be (so far) away”.[2] Figuratively it means “to be far removed from” a condition or course of action, as in procul absit “God forbid!”, and nōn multum abest quīn “it is not far from”.[2][3]

Church Latin uses it for “to be absent, be away”.[6] Its present participle is absēns “absent”.[4]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato: nōn minus XV mīlia Aniēn abest, “the Anio is at least fifteen miles away”.[2][7]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: sī apsīs longius.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of his own exile.[2][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar gives the distance between Ariovistus' forces and his own: mīlibus passuum quattuor et XX abesse.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be absent, be away; to be missing.[2][3][1][6]
  2. To stay away (from), take no part (in); to fail to support.[2]
  3. To be distant (in space or time).[2][3][1]
  4. To be far removed (from a condition or course of action);[2] procul absit, God forbid![2]
  5. nōn multum abest quīn, it is not far from (happening).[2]

Word family

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes abesse, absence from a place, from dēesse, absence that leaves something incomplete, “to be wanting”.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper