Etymologically
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auxilior

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [au̯kˈsɪ.li.ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [au̯kˈsiː.li.or][1]

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

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