aspero

Forms

asperō (present infinitive asperāre, perfect active asperāvī, supine asperātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin asper (“rough”) + -ō.^[2][1][3] The origin of asper is uncertain.^[4] De Vaan finds the old derivation from a compound meaning “rejecting” gratuitous, and reports Melchert's root Proto-Indo-European *h₂esp- (“to cut”), which Melchert sees in Cuneiform Luwian hašp- (“to cut down”) and Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís, “shield”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first author.^[3] In his book on farming a threshing board is made of a plank roughened with stones or iron, lapidibus aut ferrō asperāta.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to make a surface rough, and so to make it sharp or pointed.^[2][5] Lewis and Short note that it is very frequent in the poets and in Tacitus but not found in Cicero,^[6] and the TLL adds the medical writers.^[3] Virgil has winter roughening the waves with its north winds,^[2][7] and Tacitus a dagger sharpened on a stone.^[7][5] Of sound and style it meant to make harsh: Quintilian speaks of words moved to the end of a clause only to roughen the composition.^[2][5]

Figuratively it meant to make fierce or violent, to exasperate, and to make worse: Tacitus has soldiers made savage by the fighting and charges made heavier,^[7][5] Statius divine anger made fiercer.^[2] Prudentius uses it of making pleasures bitter to the taste,^[5] and Sidonius has the syncopated participle asprātus.^[6][3][5] In Medieval Latin Ado of Vienne uses it of leprosy disfiguring a body.^[8]

English took asperate “make rough” from its participle in the 1650s.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a threshing board roughened with stones or iron.^[2][10]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of winter roughening the sea.^[2][10]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of making anger fiercer.^[2][10]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of making style harsh.^[2][10]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of sharpening a dagger and of soldiers made savage.^[7][10]
• 1650s – English borrows the participle as asperate.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make rough, roughen;^[2][6] (passive) to become rough.^[2][6]
2. To make (the sea) rough or stormy.^[2][7]
3. To make sharp or pointed, sharpen.^[2][5]
4. To grate on (the ears).^[2]
5. To make harsh (in style).^[2][5]
6. To make fierce or violent, enrage, exasperate.^[2][7]
7. To make terrible in appearance.^[2]
8. To make worse, aggravate.^[2][5]
9. (Medieval Latin) To disfigure.^[8]

Word family

• aspratilis
• exasperō
• asperātus

Related words

• asper

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 n o p q r s 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. ^ a b 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 h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de