adaugeo

Forms

adaugeō (present infinitive adaugēre, perfect active adauxī, supine adauctum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + augeō (“to increase”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces augeō to Proto-Italic *augeje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eug-s- (“to grow”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first: in the Stichus a character congratulates Hercules on the increased tithe he had vowed to him.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Georges treats the Plautine passage as a term of sacrificial language, “to offer in addition”.^[5] Lucretius uses it of things made more numerous, Terence of harshness made greater, Cicero of crimes piled on crimes, Celsus of a fever, and Vitruvius of adding something as an increment.^[2][5] In rhetoric Cicero uses it for making a point seem greater than it is.^[2][5]

In the Old Latin Bible it renders Greek words for “add”,^[6] and Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense “increase”.^[7] Medieval German sources use it for increasing or furthering, adding, acquiring in addition and helping.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an increased tithe for Hercules.^[2][9]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of harshness made greater.^[2][9]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of atoms made more numerous.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of crimes piled on crimes and of magnifying a point in a speech.^[2][9]
• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible uses it for “to add”.^[6][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make greater, augment, increase; to supplement (with).^[2][10]
2. To make more numerous.^[2]
3. To add to, intensify (something abstract); to crown (with).^[2][10]
4. To add by way of increment.^[2]
5. To represent as greater than it is, magnify.^[2][5]
6. (religion) To offer in addition.^[5]
7. (Medieval Latin) To further; to acquire in addition; to help.^[8]

Word family

• adauctor
• adauctus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press