balbutio

Forms

balbūtiō (present infinitive balbūtīre, perfect active balbūtīvī); fourth conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] Also spelled balbūttiō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin balbus (“stammering”).^[2][4][1] The OLD compares the ending of caecūtiō (“to be dim-sighted”);^[2] de Vaan notes that the verb presupposes an adjective *balbūtus, like canūtus and hirsūtus.^[4] The adjective itself may go back to a reduplicated, onomatopoeic Proto-Indo-European *bl-bl- (“meaningless twaddle, stammering”), imitating unintelligible speech, whose exact form cannot be reconstructed.^[4] Similar words include Ancient Greek βαμβαλύζω (bambalúzō, “to have chattering teeth”) and Lithuanian blebėti (“to chatter”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it, of the Academics, who should stop stammering and speak openly, and transitively of a Stoic who stammers out very little.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Celsus uses it in its literal medical sense, of people who can hardly express themselves,^[2] and Horace transitively: illum balbutit Scaurum, “he lisps of him as Scaurus”.^[5] Pliny the Elder says that the blackbird stammers in winter, that is, does not sing clearly.^[5] Nonius defines it as faltering with a hesitation and confusion of the tongue.^[5]

In Medieval Latin it was used for stammering, for uttering sounds at intervals and for obscure speech, and transitively for saying something with a stammer.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of obscure speech.^[2][5][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it transitively.^[5][7]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a speech impediment.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the blackbird.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stammer, stutter, lisp.^[2][5]
2. To speak obscurely, babble.^[2][5]
3. Of birds: to sing indistinctly.^[5]
4. (transitive) To stammer out, lisp something.^[5]

Usage notes

The MLW also records a medieval noun balbutio (genitive balbutiōnis, feminine), “obscurity of words”, in Albertus Magnus.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de