circumlino

Forms

circumlinō (present infinitive circumlinere, perfect active circumlevī, supine circumlitum); third conjugation^[1] A fourth-conjugation form ⟨circumliniō⟩ also occurs, in Columella and Quintilian.^[2][3] The Vulgate has a late perfect ⟨circumlinisti⟩.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin circum- (“around”) + linō (“to smear”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of linō, which goes back to Proto-Italic *lina- (“to smear”) and the present Proto-Indo-European *h₂li-n-H-.^[5] Cognates he gives include Old Irish lenaid (“to stay, stick”), Welsh llynu (“to besmear”) and the Hesychian ἀλίνειν (alínein, “to smear”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[5] whose farm manual uses it of smearing round the lips of storage jars.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to smear something all round with a substance:^[2][3] Cicero writes that the Persians bury their dead coated in wax,^[2][6] Columella has grafts smeared round, Pliny the Elder many remedies smeared on, and Pliny the Younger a man who smeared one eye and then the other.^[2][3] With the dative of the surface it meant to smear one thing on another, as in Ovid's sulphur smeared on the tops of torches.^[2][6]

It also meant to paint round or decorate:^[2] Lucretius has bodies coated with no dye, Horace rocks overgrown with moss, and Ovid someone left coated in the gold he had foolishly wished for.^[2] Quintilian uses it of a painting in which nothing is painted round to bring out the figure, and figuratively of embellishing a plain subject with matter brought in from outside.^[2][3] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense to smear all over.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of smearing the lips of jars.^[2][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of bodies coated with dye.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the Persians coating their dead in wax.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of sulphur smeared on torches.^[2][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of painting and of style.^[2][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has the perfect ⟨circumlinisti⟩.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smear or anoint all round (with something).^[2][3]
2. To paint round, decorate;^[2][3] (figurative) to embellish.^[2][3]
3. To smear (a substance) on something.^[2][6]
4. To paint (a background) round a figure.^[2][6]

Word family

• circumlitiō

Related words

• linō
• oblinō

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 p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de