aspero
Pronunciation
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
- To make rough, roughen;[2][6] (passive) to become rough.[2][6]
- To make (the sea) rough or stormy.[2][7]
- To make sharp or pointed, sharpen.[2][5]
- To grate on (the ears).[2]
- To make harsh (in style).[2][5]
- To make fierce or violent, enrage, exasperate.[2][7]
- To make terrible in appearance.[2]
- To make worse, aggravate.[2][5]
- (Medieval Latin) To disfigure.[8]
Word family
- aspratilis
- exasperō
- asperātus
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de