aestus

Forms

aestus m (genitive aestūs); fourth declension^[1] Pacuvius has the genitive aestī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *aissu-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eidʰ-tu- (“burning, heat”), beside aestās (“summer”).^[4][2][1] Most handbooks take ⟨-st-⟩ as the regular outcome of ⟨*-dʰt-⟩, but de Vaan expects ⟨-ss-⟩ and thinks the suffix ⟨-tu-⟩ was restored.^[4][1] The root is that of aedēs (“temple, house”), cognate with Old Irish áed (“fire”), Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”) and Old High German eit (“funeral pyre”).^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Naevius,^[4][6] who has sōlis aestū candor cum liquēsceret, “when the white snow melted in the heat of the sun”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Aestus is “heat”, especially of the weather, a hot season, “summer”, and the heat of the body, “fever”.^[2][1] It is the blaze of a fire (Virgil: furit aestus ad aurās, “the blaze rages up to the sky”), and the fire of love or rage.^[2][1] Lucretius uses it for a spray or exhalation rising from water.^[2] Another main line is the heaving of the sea, “surge, swell” (Pacuvius: fervit aestū pelagus), and the ebb and flow of the sea, “the tide” (Plautus: the farther you go out to sea, the more the tide carries you back to port), then a current and figuratively a tide of feeling (Cicero: carried off by a tide of glory).^[2][3][1] It is also commotion, and anxiety, disquiet (Cicero: quī tibi aestus … erunt!).^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “heat, rage, fire, wavering”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius: sōlis aestū.^[2][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the tide.^[2][6]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius: fervit aestū pelagus.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: furit aestus ad aurās.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. heat; hot weather, summer.^[2][3][1][7]
2. Bodily heat, fever.^[2]
3. A blaze, fire.^[2][1][7]
4. Passion, love; rage.^[2][1][7]
5. The surge or swell of the sea.^[2][3][1]
6. The tide; a current.^[2][3][1]
7. Commotion; anxiety, hesitation.^[2][1][7]

Word family

• aestuārium
• aestuōsus
• aestuālis
• aestuō

Related words

• aestās
• aedēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson