contristo

Forms

contrīstō (present infinitive contrīstāre, perfect active contrīstāvī, supine contrīstātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + trīstis (“sad”) + -ō, a verb made from the adjective.^[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no good etymology for trīstis; a link with Germanic words for “audacious” that Hill considers fails on the sound changes.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first, once each, in Rutilius Lupus and in Caelius,^[3] whose letter to Cicero says that a decision saddened Balbus.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that apart from Caelius it is perhaps not found before Augustus.^[5] In poetry it is to darken or make gloomy: Virgil's south wind saddens the sky with cold rain, and Horace's Aquarius the year.^[2] Columella uses it of heat and cold making vines languish.^[2] Seneca has the wise man who is neither troubled nor saddened.^[5] Stelten gives “make sad”.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the wind darkening the sky.^[2][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of Aquarius saddening the year.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of vines made to languish.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make sad, sadden, depress, discourage.^[2][5][1][6]
2. (poetic) To make dark or gloomy.^[2][1]
3. To make (plants) languish; to damage (crops).^[2][1]

Word family

• contristātiō

Related words

• trīstis
• trīstitia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de