Etymologically
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edo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɛ.doː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛː.do][1]

Forms

edō (present infinitive edere or ēsse, perfect active ēdī, supine ēsum or ēssum or ēstum); third conjugation, irregular alternative forms[1] It has short irregular forms beside the regular ones: es, est, estis, infinitive esse; the older subjunctive is edim.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ed- (“to eat”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éd-mi (“I eat”), an old athematic verb.[3][1] The long vowel of the short forms and of the participle is due to Lachmann's law.[3]

Cognate with Oscan edum (“to eat”),[3][2] and further with Hittite ed- (“to eat”), Sanskrit अद्मि (ádmi, “I eat”), Ancient Greek ἔδω (édō, “to eat”), Lithuanian ė́sti (“to eat (of animals)”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan, “to eat”) and English eat.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Livius Andronicus onwards.[3] A parasite in Plautus says “like mice, we always eat other people's food”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to eat, of people and animals, as Cato's advice to eat cabbage raw.[2] Terence's de symbolis edere was to dine with each guest paying a share.[4][5] Figuratively fire, rust, water and disease were said to eat things away, as Virgil's rust that eats the stalks of corn.[2]

From it came edāx “greedy”, ēsca “food, bait” and ēsuriō “to be hungry”.[3] Medieval writers kept using it for eating.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for eating.[2][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in advice on eating cabbage.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses de symbolis edere.[4][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of rust eating corn.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To eat.[2][8]
  2. (of fire, rust, etc.) To eat away, consume.[2]

Word family

  • peredō
  • comedō
  • edāx
  • ēsca
  • ēsuriō
  • English edible
  • English comestible

Usage notes

Two other words are spelled the same: ēdō, ēdere, from ex and dō, means to put forth or publish, and is the source of English edit;[2][1][9] and edō, edōnis, is a glutton, in Varro.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com