auxilior

Forms

auxilior (present infinitive auxiliārī or auxiliārier, perfect active auxiliātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] An active auxiliō is also found;^[2] the grammarians Diomedes and Priscian say it was used by the oldest writers, and Diomedes quotes auxiliem from a speech of Gaius Gracchus.^[3] Plautus and Terence use the old infinitive auxiliārier.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin auxilium (“help, aid”) + -ō, a denominative verb.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists auxilium (from Plautus on) among the derivatives of augeō (“to increase”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *augeje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eug- (“to grow”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Plautus' Trinummus, where one character tells another that there is no better way to help a third.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL calls it a word of everyday speech, rarely used by poets and prose writers, though common in the medical writers.^[3] Terence uses it twice,^[3] and Cicero perhaps only once, in his letters.^[6] Caesar uses it of bringing military help, as when Caesar's men had no opportunity to help,^[2] and the participle auxiliātus has a passive sense, “helped”, in Lucilius and Vitruvius.^[3]

Of things it means to be helpful,^[2] and especially in medicine to be a remedy: Ovid speaks of a medicine that helps,^[2] and Pliny the Elder uses it often of remedies.^[3][2] Statius has peoples clashing bronze to bring help,^[2] and Pliny the Elder mentions the din raised to help the moon in eclipse.^[3] In the Vulgate it unusually takes a genitive.^[3] Church Latin kept it in the sense “help, aid, support”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the infinitive auxiliārier.^[3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it twice.^[3][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of military help.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a medicine that helps.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of remedies.^[3][2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it with a genitive.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give help, render aid, assist.^[2][6]
2. Of things, to be helpful, be of use.^[2]
3. (medicine) To be a remedy, relieve, cure.^[2][1]

Word family

• auxiliābundus
• auxiliātiō
• auxiliātor
• auxiliātus

Related words

• auxiliāris
• auxiliārius
• auxiliātrīx
• auxilium
• augeō

References

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