clino

Forms

clīnō (present infinitive clīnāre, perfect active clīnāvī, supine clīnātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The simple verb is rare: it is a back-formation, from Latin inclīnō (“to cause to lean”) and the other compounds, acclīnō, dēclīnō and reclīnō, made by poets and grammarians on the model of Greek κλίνω (klínō, “to cause to lean”).^[2][3][4] The verb stem of those compounds is inherited: de Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *kl(e)in-e/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱl-n(e)-i- (“to lean to, bend”), often replaced by the nasal present *kli-n-.^[5] Besides the Greek verb, it is cognate with Avestan -sirinaoiti (“leans”), Old High German hlinēn and Old English hlinian (“to lean”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest form is the participle clīnātus “inclined, slanting” in Cicero's translation of Aratus.^[3][6][2]

Semantic evolution

Finite forms are found only in the shorthand Notae Tironianae and in the grammarians,^[6][2] who used it of Greek words being declined: voces graecae per casus numerosque clinantur.^[2] It survives in Italian chinare,^[2] and through Old French cliner it gave Middle English clinen “to bend, bow”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the participle clīnātus in his Aratea.^[3][8]
• 500–9th century – The Notae Tironianae record the form clinat.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend, incline (rare; usually in the participle clīnātus).^[6][9][1]
2. (Late Latin, grammar) To inflect, decline.^[2]

Word family

• clīnātus

Related words

• inclīnō
• dēclīnō
• reclīnō
• acclīnō
• clīnāmen
• clīvus
• cliēns
• English incline
• English decline

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.