blaesus

Forms

blaesus (feminine blaesa, neuter blaesum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βλαισός (blaisós),^[2][3][4][1] although, as the TLL notes, the Latin word differs in meaning from what the Greek one is recorded to mean.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid is the first to use it: in the Amores a parrot repeats words with a lisping sound, and in the Ars amatoria the tongue is forced into a lisping sound on purpose.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

It describes speech in which sounds are mispronounced, whether through a defect of the tongue or through drink;^[2][7] it is mostly a word of poetry.^[3] Martial uses it of himself lying drunk after seven cups, and Juvenal of drunken men who are easily beaten.^[5] Glossaries explain it as mispronouncing one letter in speaking,^[5] and the jurist Ulpian uses it as a noun for a person who lisps.^[3][5]

As a cognomen Blaesus was borne by the Sempronii and Iunii.^[2][7] It survives in Old French blois^[5] and in Italian bleso.^[8]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a parrot's speech and of an affected lisp.^[5][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of drunken speech.^[5][6]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal speaks of drunken, stammering men.^[5][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it as a noun in the Digest.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lisping, stammering; mispronouncing words through a defect of speech or through drink.^[2][3]
2. (as a noun) A person who lisps.^[3]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from balbus: balbus is stammering as a lasting trait, blaesus as a passing condition.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper