deuro

Forms

deūrō (present infinitive deūrere, perfect active deussī, supine deustum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“down, thoroughly”) + ūrō (“to burn”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ūrō to Proto-Italic *ouse/o- (“to burn”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eus-e/o- (“to burn”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit ओषति (oṣati, “to burn, scorch”), Ancient Greek εὕω (heúō, “to singe”) and Old Norse ysja (“fire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Lucilius on.^[3] Its first sense is to burn up completely.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to burn thoroughly or burn down.^[2][6] Caesar uses it of the burnt screens of siege towers, the Bellum Hispaniense of a burnt town, and Livy of villages, crops and farmland burnt as the land was laid waste;^[3][5][7] Tacitus has part of the Circus and the Caelian Hill burnt down.^[7] Gellius uses it of burning books, and Minucius Felix of writings burnt in an assembly.^[5] Lewis and Short call it frequent in the historians, rare elsewhere, and absent from Cicero.^[7]

It was also used of cold and other forces that wither as if by burning:^[2][8] Livy has a winter that had blighted the trees, Curtius coastal lands blasted by the north wind, and Seneca a serpent that scorches whatever its breath touches.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it, the earliest author the TLL records.^[3][9]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of burnt siege screens.^[3][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of villages burnt and of trees blighted by winter.^[2][9]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of land blasted by the north wind.^[2][9]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a serpent's scorching breath.^[2][9]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of burning books.^[5][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To burn up, burn down, consume by fire.^[2][7]
2. (of cold, wind or a serpent's breath) To wither, blight.^[2][5]

Related words

• ūrō
• combūrō
• exūrō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de