cariosus

Forms

cariōsus (feminine cariōsa, neuter cariōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cariēs (“decay, rot”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks cariēs more likely belongs to careō (“to lack”), as a “state of defectiveness”, than to the root of Sanskrit शृणाति (śr̥ṇā́ti, “breaks”) and Ancient Greek κεραΐζω (keraḯzō, “to ravage”), Proto-Indo-European *ḱrh2- (“to break”), which earlier dictionaries proposed.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it,^[4][3] in his book on farming, of crumbly, badly conditioned soil that should not be ploughed or driven over.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cato's terra cariosa puzzled later writers: Pliny the Elder explains it as dry, porous, rough and worn, while Columella says the farmers' term meant land wet on the surface and dry beneath.^[5][3] Otherwise it described rotten wood, as in Lucilius' little table with decayed feet,^[2][6] decayed teeth and bone in Phaedrus and Celsus,^[2][5] and things gone crumbly with age, such as dates in Varro and old wine in Martial.^[2][5]

Figuratively it meant withered by old age: Ovid speaks of decrepit old age,^[5][6] Prudentius of worm-eaten statues of the gods, and Ambrose of priests rotten with faithlessness.^[5][7] English took it over in the 1670s, through French, as carious, “decayed” of teeth and bone.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of crumbly soil.^[2][3][9]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a table with decayed feet.^[2][6][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro says dates grow more crumbly with age.^[2][9]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid speaks of decrepit old age.^[5][6][9]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of decayed teeth.^[2][9]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of aged wine.^[2][9]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose calls priests rotten with faithlessness.^[5][7][9]
• 1670s – English borrows it, through French, as carious.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Decayed, rotten (of wood).^[2][5]
2. Carious, affected by decay (of teeth, bone or flesh).^[2][5]
3. Of soil: crumbly and porous, in poor condition for working.^[2][5]
4. Crumbly or friable from age.^[2]
5. Of wine: gone flat or mellow with age.^[5][7]
6. (figurative) Withered with age, decrepit.^[2][5]

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 l m n o 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 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 l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de