admisceo

Forms

admisceō (present infinitive admiscēre, perfect active admiscuī, supine admixtum); second conjugation^[1] The participle is admixtus, less well admistus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- (“to”) + misceō (“to mix”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces misceō to Proto-Italic *mik-sk-e/o- (“to mix”) and Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sk-e/o-.^[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek μείγνυμι (meígnumi, “to mingle, mix”), Old Irish mescaid (“mixes, confuses”) and Lithuanian maišýti (“to mix”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is in Plautus' Casina: nothing can be salty or sweet unless love is mixed in.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to add something as an ingredient, as Cicero speaks of heat mixed with water, to mix things together, and to produce something by mixing.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it implies a main ingredient to which something is added, where immisceō stresses close union and permisceō the loss of separate character.^[3] It can mean to adulterate, as Cicero writes that seaports are infected with new speech and customs, and to add without fusion, as Caesar adds 400 front-line soldiers to a force.^[2] Terence uses it of drawing a person into an affair: “manage your business so as not to involve me”.^[2] The TLL notes that it is mostly technical, frequent in the medical writers.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of love mixed into everything.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of involving a person in an affair.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of heat mixed with water.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of troops added to a force.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To add as an ingredient, mix in; to mix together; to produce by mixing.^[2][3][1]
2. To mix so as to contaminate or adulterate.^[2]
3. To add, attach or include.^[2][1]
4. With cum, to mix up, confuse.^[2]
5. To involve a person in a matter; reflexively, to get involved, meddle.^[2][1]

Word family

• admixtiō
• admixtus
• admistiō
• admistus

Related words

• commisceō
• ēmisceō
• immisceō
• impermisceō
• intermisceō
• misceō
• permisceō
• prōmiscuus
• remisceō
• English admix

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 o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de