causticus

Forms

causticus (feminine caustica, neuter causticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek καυστικός (kaustikós, “capable of burning, corrosive”).^[2][3][1][4] The Greek adjective comes from καυστός (kaustós, “burnt, combustible”), the verbal adjective of καίω (kaíō, “to burn”), whose origin is uncertain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder uses it of the burning, corrosive power of plants such as mustard.^[3][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny also used the neuter causticum as a noun for a caustic medicine,^[3][7] and Martial has caustica spuma, which L&S explains as a kind of soap with which the Germans dyed their hair.^[3] John Cassian uses the adjective too.^[7]

Medieval medical Latin kept it for caustic remedies and for what is burnt; as a noun the feminine named tinder or the tinder fungus, and the neuter a corrosive medicine or a surgical knife.^[8] English took it over as caustic around 1400.^[5]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of the caustic nature of plants and of caustic medicines.^[3][6][4]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions caustica spuma, a soap for dyeing the hair.^[3][4]
• c. 360–c. 435 AD – John Cassian uses the word.^[7][4]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as caustic.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Caustic, corrosive, burning.^[2][3][9]
2. (substantive, neuter) causticum: a caustic medicine.^[3][7]
3. (Medieval Latin, substantive, feminine) Tinder; the tinder fungus.^[8]

Word family

• caustice
• causticum

Related words

• English caustic

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn