absumo
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Pronunciation
Forms
absūmō (present infinitive absūmere, perfect active absūmpsī, supine absūmptum); third conjugation[1] The perfect is absūmpsī, participle absūmptum (not -msī, -mtum).[2]
Etymology
It is from ab- “away” and sūmō “to take”.[3][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of squandering money.[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]
Semantic evolution
Originally “to take away”, it meant to use up, spend, squander, as in Plautus; to consume food, as in Varro; to wear out, exhaust, of worry and disease, as in Terence; of fire to destroy, as in Livy; in the passive to be used up, disappear, as in Virgil; to absorb moisture, as in Seneca; and of a cause of death to carry off, as in Livy.[3][2]
In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to take away, lessen, destroy, consume.[5]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of squandering.[3][4]
- 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of exhaustion.[3][4]
- 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of fire and death.[3][4]
Meanings
Verb
- To use up, squander, waste.[3]
- To consume, devour.[3]
- To wear out, exhaust; to destroy.[3]
- To absorb.[3]
- (of death) To carry off.[3]
Word family
- absūmēdō
- absūmptiō
- absūmptus
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson