bibo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈbɪ.boː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈbiː.bo]^[1]

Forms

bibō (present infinitive bibere, perfect active bibī, supine bibitum); third conjugation^[1] Cato and Titinius have a short infinitive biber.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pibe/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pi-ph₃-e/o- (“to drink”), a reduplicated present; the initial /b/ is assimilated to the inner /b/.^[4][1] Cognate with Faliscan pipafo (“I will drink”), Old Irish ibid (“drinks”), Sanskrit पिबति (píbati, “drinks”) and Ancient Greek πίνω (pínō, “to drink”).^[4][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livius Andronicus writes “I ate, drank and played”.^[2][4] Köbler dates Livius Andronicus 280/260–before 200 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was to drink a liquid, to have a drink, and to drink wine, to tipple.^[2] Poets used it of drinking from a river, that is living near it, and it was to take medicine, to suck milk, to soak up liquid and figuratively to drink in words.^[2][6] Döderlein says that bibere is drinking like a human being, pōtō drinking like a beast or tippling.^[7]

In medieval Latin it had religious, legal and medical uses.^[8] It survives as Italian bere, Spanish beber and Romanian bea.^[1] Old French boivre gave English beverage, and imbibō gave imbibe.^[9]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• mid-13th century – English beverage is recorded, from Old French bevrage.^[9]
• late 14th century – English imbibe is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drink.^[2][3]
2. To drink wine, tipple.^[2]
3. (poetic) To drink of (a river), live near it.^[2]
4. To take (medicine); to suck (milk).^[2]
5. To soak up, absorb; to drink in.^[2][6]

Word family

• combibō
• adbibō
• bibāx
• biberārius
• bibilis
• bibitiō
• bibitor
• bibōsus
• bibulus
• debibo
• ēbibō
• imbibō

Related words

• pōtus
• pōtō
• English imbibe
• English beverage

Usage notes

A noun bibō meant a drunkard, and a small insect bred in wine.^[3][6]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com