aquatio

Forms

aquātiō f (genitive aquātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aquor (“to fetch water”) + -tiō.^[2][3][4] The verb is made from aqua (“water”),^[3] which goes back to Proto-Italic *akwā- (“water”).^[5] Cognate with Old High German aha, from Proto-Germanic *aχwō (“water”);^[5] de Vaan adds that the shared word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first to use it, in On Duties, of the place where the people of Syracuse draw their water: hīc aquātiō.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a military word for fetching water: Caesar has troops advancing to get water, the Bellum Africum a long and narrow water supply, and Livy water within a spear's throw.^[2][3] Vegetius names it with gathering wood and forage among the tasks to be kept safe from the enemy.^[3] Columella uses the plural for watering places for livestock, and Pliny the Elder for the stations on a route laid out by the water supply.^[2][7] Palladius uses it for the watering of plants,^[4][7] and Pliny for autumn rains, or pools left by rain, in which frogs are born.^[2][7]

Medieval charters use it for a watering place and for washing,^[8] and an English account of 1365 for the watering of cattle.^[9] Its descendants include Italian acquazzone (“downpour”) and Romansh auazun.^[1][10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the Syracusans' place for drawing water.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of troops fetching water.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a water supply.^[2][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of watering places for livestock.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the plural for autumn rains.^[2][6]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it for watering plants.^[4][6]
• 1278 – A Hildesheim charter uses it for washing herrings.^[8]
• 1365 – An account from Durham uses it for watering cattle.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fetching or drawing of water.^[2][4]
2. A watering place.^[2][4]
3. (plural) Rains, or pools left by rain.^[2][7]
4. The watering of plants.^[4][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) Washing.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) The watering of animals.^[9]

Related words

• aqua
• aquor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c 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 e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier