aestuo

Forms

aestuō (present infinitive aestuāre, perfect active aestuāvī, supine aestuātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from aestus (“heat, surge”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists ⟨aestus⟩ under aestās (“summer”), from Proto-Italic *aissu- and Proto-Indo-European *h2eidh-tu- (“burning, heat”); he thinks the forms first had ⟨-ss-⟩, the regular outcome of the dental cluster, and that the suffix ⟨-tu-⟩ was later restored.^[4] The root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“burning”) also gives aedēs, Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”) and Old Irish áed (“fire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Plautus' Poenulus, “while the cakes are cooking”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of fire it means “to blaze, burn fiercely”, as Virgil's fire raging in a closed furnace, and of things heated “to boil”.^[2][5] It is used of places and persons sweltering in the heat, as Virgil's scorched field with dying grass, and of burning with love or desire, as Ovid's Byblis.^[2] Of water it is “to seethe, surge”, as Virgil's muddy whirlpool, and of other things “to toss”, as Lucretius' tree shaken by the winds.^[2] Figuratively it is to fret or seethe with emotion, as Cicero's men who had paid money and then heard the news, and to waver in doubt.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “to be hot, scorch, kindle, rage”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of cooking cakes.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a tossing tree.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of fretting and wavering.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of fire, heat and whirlpools.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blaze, burn; to boil.^[2][5][1][6]
2. To swelter, be very hot.^[2][1]
3. To burn with love or desire.^[2][1]
4. Of water, to seethe, surge; to toss about; to ebb and flow.^[2][1]
5. To fret, chafe; of emotions, to surge up.^[2][1]
6. To waver, be in doubt.^[2][1]

Word family

• abaestuō
• adaestuō
• aestuābundus
• aestuāns
• aestuātiō
• exaestuō
• inaestuō
• interaestuō

Related words

• aestās
• aestifer
• aestīvālis
• aestīvē
• aestīvus
• aestuārium
• aestuōsus
• aestus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de