attenuo

Forms

attenuō (present infinitive attenuāre, perfect active attenuāvī, supine attenuātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelt adtenuō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + tenuō (“to make thin”), from tenuis (“thin”).^[3][4][5] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *tn̥(a)u- and Proto-Indo-European *tnh₂-(e)u- (“thin”), the source also of Sanskrit तनु (tanú-, “thin, slender”) and Ancient Greek ταναός (tanaós, “thin, elongated”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Lucretius,^[6] who says that the right hands of bronze statues are worn thin by the touch of people greeting them.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to make thin: Catullus uses it of pruning that thins a tree's shade, and Pliny the Elder of a lion's tongue that thins the skin by licking.^[7][8] Caesar writes of a legion greatly reduced by battles,^[7][9] Cicero of a war made smaller by the expectation of a commander's arrival,^[7][9] and Ovid of sleepless nights wasting young men's bodies.^[7][9] The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a voice made thin, and Cicero of a style made too plain.^[7] Horace says the god humbles the eminent man,^[7] and Ovid that Achilles eased his cares with the lyre.^[7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to weaken or diminish,^[10] and medieval technical and medical writers use it of thinning metals, liquids and the body.^[11] English attenuate (1520s) comes from its past participle.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of bronze hands worn thin.^[7][6][12]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a war diminished.^[7][12]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar writes of a legion reduced by battles.^[7][12]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of bodies wasted by sleepless nights.^[7][12]
• 1520s – English borrows attenuate from its past participle.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make thin or slender;^[7][2] (passive) to become thinner, shrink.^[7][2]
2. To reduce in number or amount, thin out.^[7][9]
3. To make thin (in tone); to make plain (in style).^[7]
4. To weaken, exhaust; to impoverish, humble.^[7][8]
5. To lower in estimation, diminish.^[7]
6. To lessen (in intensity), alleviate.^[7]

Word family

• attenuātiō
• attenuātē
• attenuātus

Related words

• tenuō
• tenuis
• extenuō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
12. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de