aduro

Forms

adūrō (present infinitive adūrere, perfect active adussī, supine adustum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + ūrō (“to burn”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ūrō to Proto-Italic *ouse/o- (“to burn”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eus-e/o- (“to burn”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek εὕω (heúō, “to singe”) and Old Norse ysja (“fire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's earliest examples are of food: in Terence's Adelphoe a cook complains “this is too salty, this burnt”, and Cato uses it too.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to damage by fire, scorch or char, as Cicero's Indian sages who burn without a groan, and to burn up, as Horace's bones burnt in Colchian flames.^[2][5] Lucretius uses it of bright light that often burns the eyes.^[5] It is also to dry out, as grapes in the sun in Varro, and in medicine to cauterize, as in Celsus.^[2] Of cold and wind it means to nip or shrivel, as Virgil's piercing cold of the north wind, and of pests to blight, as Pliny the Elder's locusts; it also means to sting or chafe the skin.^[2] Propertius uses the participle of Cleopatra branded by the blood of Philip's line.^[2] Church Latin glosses it burn, set on fire, kindle.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of burnt food.^[3][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of light burning the eyes.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sages burnt without a groan.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of frost nipping the fields.^[2][7]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of cauterizing an abscess.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scorch, singe, char; to burn up.^[2][5][6][1]
2. To make dry.^[2]
3. (medicine) To cauterize; to prune by burning; to singe hair.^[2]
4. To imprint as a brand.^[2]
5. To cause a burning sensation, sting; to chafe.^[2]
6. Of cold or wind, to nip, shrivel; to blight.^[2][5]

Word family

• adustiō
• adustum
• inadustus

Related words

• ūrō
• adustus

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de