basio

Forms

bāsiō (present infinitive bāsiāre, perfect active bāsiāvī, supine bāsiātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin bāsium (“kiss”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan thinks bāsium, which Catullus brought into the written language, is probably a loanword, perhaps Celtic, given that Catullus came from Verona.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Catullus uses it first,^[4] asking in poem 7 how many kisses would be enough for him to kiss Lesbia with (bāsia multa bāsiāre).^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to kiss.^[2][5][1] Lewis & Short call it poetic and rare, most frequent in Catullus and absent from Plautus and Terence;^[5] after Catullus it occurs in Martial and Petronius.^[5] The grammarian Probus gives Martial as the authority for the perfect bāsiāvī.^[3] The glosses render it with Ancient Greek καταφιλέω (kataphiléō, “to kiss”) and Latin ōsculor.^[3]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of many kisses.^[5][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius.^[5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial.^[5][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To kiss.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• bāsiātiō
• bāsiātor
• perbāsiō

Related words

• ōsculor
• suāvior

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press