albeo

Forms

albeō (present infinitive albēre); second conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin albus (“white”) + -eō, a stative verb.^[2][1] De Vaan traces albus to Proto-Italic *alfo- (“white”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰ-o- (“white”);^[3] Paul the Deacon's Festus reports that the Sabines said ⟨alpus⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Sisenna, who writes of the sky growing light.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to be white or appear white: in Virgil the plains are white with bones.^[2][5] Priscian notes that Virgil used this simple form beside the inchoative albēscō.^[6] Seneca uses it of people who are pale and wan.^[2] Lewis & Short call it rare and poetic, frequent in Ovid and found in post-Augustan prose, especially in the present participle ⟨albēns⟩: white roses, white foam, a head white with grey hair.^[5] Church Latin glosses it to become white.^[7]

Timeline

• 120–67 BC – Sisenna of the sky growing light.^[2][3][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of plains white with bones.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of white roses and foam.^[5][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of pale people.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be white, appear white.^[2][5][1][7]
2. To be pale.^[2]
3. Of the sky, to be or grow light.^[2]

Word family

• albēscō
• albidus
• inalbeō

Related words

• albus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson