consummo

Forms

cōnsummō (present infinitive cōnsummāre, perfect active cōnsummāvī, supine cōnsummātum); first conjugation^[1] Manuscripts often spell it consumo and confuse it with cōnsūmō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + summa (“sum, total”) + -ō.^[3][2][1] summa is from summus (“highest”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *sup(a)mo- (“highest”) and Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)up-m(H)o- (“highest”).^[4][5] Cognate with Umbrian somo (“upper”) and Ancient Greek ὕπατος (húpatos, “highest”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short note that it is not used before Augustus and is most frequent in Quintilian.^[6] Vitruvius uses it of reckoning up the cost of buildings by arithmetic.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to add up, to make up by addition, as Ovid's day added to complete a lustrum, and of numbers to amount to a total, as in Columella.^[3][6] In inscriptions the participle means loaded with honours.^[3] From summing up it came to mean to bring to an end or finish, as Seneca the Elder's ending one's life, and to make complete, as Seneca's benefit that has not yet completed its duty; in the passive it is to reach maturity, and of soldiers to complete one's service.^[3] It also means to accomplish, as in Livy, and to perfect or crown, as the glory of a war.^[3] Döderlein groups it with absolvō and perficiō as verbs of completing, as against fīniō and terminō, which merely end.^[7]

Church Latin glosses it to finish, end, complete, consummate, perfect.^[8] English consummate (about 1500) comes from its participle consummatus.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of adding up costs.^[3][9]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a day completing a lustrum.^[3][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of accomplishing a task.^[3][9]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it most often.^[6][9]
• c. 1500 – English consummate comes from its participle.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To add up, reckon up; to make up by addition; of numbers, to amount to.^[3][6][1]
2. To bring to an end, finish.^[3][8][1]
3. To make complete; in the passive, to reach maturity; of soldiers, to serve out one's time.^[3]
4. To bring about, accomplish.^[3][1]
5. To perfect; to crown an achievement.^[3][8][1]

Word family

• consummābilis
• cōnsummātiō
• cōnsummātor

Related words

• summa
• summus
• English consummate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de