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aresco

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word aresco

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*h₂eh₁s-eh₁-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin areo
Latin aresco

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aːˈreːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈrɛs.ko][1]

Forms

ārēscō (present infinitive ārēscere, perfect active āruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin āreō (“to be dry”) + -scō.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces āreō to Proto-Italic *ās-ē- (“to be dry”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s-eh₁- (“to be dry”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it of clothes drying, dum mea arescunt, “while mine dry”;[5] the TLL finds it from Cato on.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to become dry, to dry up,[2] as of marshy ground in Varro.[3] Of plants it is to wither, and of ripening grain to dry up: Cicero speaks of laurels withering.[2] Of streams and tears it is to cease to flow, to run dry: the Rhetorica ad Herennium has the saying that nothing dries more quickly than a tear,[2] and Ovid a spring that could never run dry.[2] Tacitus uses it of water drying up,[5] and the Vulgate of a river drying up and of men withering like grass.[5] In Church Latin it also means to pine away.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of clothes drying.[5][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato.[3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of withering laurels.[2][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a spring that never runs dry.[2][7]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of men withering like grass.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To become dry, to dry up.[2][5][1][6]
  2. Of plants: to wither;[2][1] of grain, to dry up.[2]
  3. Of streams and tears: to cease to flow, run dry.[2][5]
  4. To languish, pine away.[1][6]

Word family

  • adārēscō
  • exārēscō
  • inārēscō
  • interārēscō
  • obārēscō
  • perārescō
  • subārescō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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 f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Aresco.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/aresco. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·