Etymologically
Log in

ardesco

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 03:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aːrˈdeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [arˈdɛs.ko][1]

Forms

ārdēscō (present infinitive ārdēscere, perfect active ārsī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ārdeō (“to burn”) + -scō, with the inchoative suffix.[2][1][3] De Vaan derives ārdeō from āridus (“dry”), from āreō (“to be dry”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *ās-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s-eh₁- (“to be dry”), comparing Tocharian A asatär (“dries up”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on: in the Persa a slave is told to put out the fire if his heart is burning, so that his head does not catch fire.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it of things that grow hot with motion until they catch fire and of the regions of the sky taking fire;[2][6] the OLD also records it of a volcano erupting and of things that become bright.[2] Tacitus has a city that becomes hotter in the sun.[2] Figuratively it is to become inflamed or excited, and with ⟨in⟩ and the accusative to hanker after something: Tacitus writes of someone becoming eager for an incestuous marriage.[2] It is also to grow fierce: in Virgil the neighing of horses grows louder.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic or post-Augustan and not found in Cicero, where the compound exārdēscō is very frequent.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a head catching fire.[3][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of things catching fire and of the sky taking fire.[2][6][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the growing noise of horses.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of a hot city and of eagerness for a marriage.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To catch fire, kindle; of a volcano, to erupt; to become bright or hot.[2][6][1][7]
  2. To become inflamed or excited; to become eager for.[2][6][1]
  3. To become intense, grow fierce or violent.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson