Etymologically
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candesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kanˈdeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kanˈdɛs.ko][1]

Forms

candēscō (present infinitive candēscere, perfect active canduī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin candeō (“to shine, be white”) + -scō, an inchoative verb.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces candeō to Proto-Italic *kand-ē- (“to shine”) and explains its vowel, unexpected beside a root Proto-Indo-European *knd-, as arising in formations such as *knd-ro- (“shining”).[4] Cognate with Welsh cann (“brilliant”) and Sanskrit चन्द्र (candrá-, “brilliant”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first example in the OLD is in Lucretius, of iron that grows red-hot in the fire: ferrum candescit in igni.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides growing hot or red-hot, which Propertius, Ovid, Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder also use it for,[2][3] it meant to grow white, as when Tibullus hopes his head may turn white with grey hair,[2][6] and to grow bright: Ovid has the air turning purple and then, a little later, growing light at sunrise.[2][6] Lewis and Short call it rare and mostly poetic.[6]

Augustine uses it figuratively in corde candescere, to be pure of heart.[5] Church Latin kept the senses of growing white, shining and glowing.[7]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of iron growing red-hot in the fire.[2][8]
  • c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus uses it of a head growing white.[2][8]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the air growing light at sunrise.[2][8]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine has corde candescere, to be pure of heart.[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To grow light, brighten.[2][6]
  2. To grow white.[2][6]
  3. To become hot, glow, grow red-hot.[2][6]
  4. (Late Latin, figurative) In corde candescere: to be pure of heart.[5]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de