Etymologically
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asbestos

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [asˈbɛs.tɔs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [azˈbɛs.tos][1]

Forms

asbestos m (genitive asbestī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “inextinguishable”).[2][1][3] The Greek adjective is from ἀ- (a-, “not”) and σβεστός (sbestós), from σβέννυμι (sbénnumi, “to quench”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷes- (“to quench”).[4][1] Isidore of Seville says the stone was named from fire, because once lit it is never put out.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro lists it among the things whose names, coming with luxury, are clearly Greek.[6] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.[7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny describes it as an iron-grey stone found in the mountains of Arcadia, which Lewis & Short and Georges think is not modern asbestos but perhaps the mineral amiantus.[3][8][6] Solinus and Isidore repeat that once kindled it cannot be extinguished, and Augustine mentions the Arcadian stone in the City of God.[6][5]

Medieval Latin used it of asbestos and of quicklime, with forms such as albestos.[9][7] English had albeston and abestus from about 1100 for a fabulous stone that could not be put out, and asbestos from the 1650s.[4]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro mentions it among Greek words.[6][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the Arcadian stone.[3][7]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine mentions it in the City of God.[6][7]
  • c. 1100 – English abestus is recorded.[4]
  • 1650s – English asbestos is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An iron-grey stone of Arcadia, said to burn without going out; perhaps amianthus.[2][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) asbestos; quicklime.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b 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