dilutus

Forms

dīlūtus (feminine dīlūta, neuter dīlūtum; comparative dīlūtior, superlative dīlūtissimus); first/second-declension adjective.^[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect participle from Latin dīluō (“to wash away, dilute”), used as an adjective.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus has it first, in medical advice on drinks: diluted potions, and wine more watered for boys and less for old men.^[1][4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

From “diluted, mixed with water” the word came to mean thin or watery in general, as Pliny the Elder says of wax and of soil.^[1][4] Of colours it meant pale or faint, as in Pliny's pale red of poisonous mushrooms and the paler amethyst; of smells, faint.^[1][4][2] Gellius uses it figuratively of a weak, feeble piece of writing.^[1][2]

L&S calls it perhaps only post-Augustan.^[4] Ausonius used the comparative for a man who had been drinking,^[4][6] and Ammianus, by a figure from colours, in the sense “clear, evident”.^[4] The neuter dīlūtum was a noun for a solution, a liquid in which something has been dissolved, in Pliny.^[4]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus writes of diluted drinks and watered wine.^[1][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of thin wax and of pale colours and faint smells.^[1][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius calls a passage of writing too feeble.^[1][5]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses dīlūtior of a wine-drinker.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Diluted, mixed with water.^[1][4]
2. Thin, watery.^[1]
3. Of colour, pale, faint.^[1][4]
4. Of smell, faint, slight.^[1][4]
5. (transferred) Lacking force, feeble.^[1][2]
6. (Late Latin) Having drunk, tipsy.^[4][6]
7. (Late Latin) Clear, evident.^[4]

Noun

1. (neuter, dīlūtum) A solution, a liquid in which something has been dissolved.^[4]

Related words

• diluo
• English dilute

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.