edomo

Forms

ēdomō (present infinitive ēdomāre, perfect active ēdomuī, supine ēdomitum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + domō (“to tame”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces domō to Proto-Italic *domaje- and Proto-Indo-European *domh₂-eie/o- (“to tame”), originally a causative.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit दमयति (damáyati), Ancient Greek δάμνημι (dámnēmi, “to tame, subdue”) and Hittite tamāšš- (“to press”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first example in the OLD is in Cicero's De fato, of a vicious nature so thoroughly mastered by learning: vitiōsam nātūram … sīc ēdomitam esse doctrīnā.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to tame completely, subdue or conquer.^[6][2] Horace writes mōs et lēx … ēdomuit nefās, custom and law have conquered wrongdoing, and Ovid has Rome raising its head over a world subdued.^[2][5] Manilius says man tamed the earth to bear crops, Columella contrasts the cultivated parsnip with the wild, and Pliny the Elder uses it of melting bronze in fire.^[2][6] Lewis and Short call it rare and mostly poetic or post-Augustan.^[6]

The TLL records the forms ēdomāta in Augustine and ēdomitūrus in Hilary,^[3] and Church Latin used it for taming or vanquishing.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a nature mastered by learning.^[2][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes that custom and law have conquered wrongdoing.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the world subdued by Rome.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of taming the earth for crops.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To subdue thoroughly, subjugate, conquer.^[2][6]
2. To master vices or overcome difficulties.^[2]
3. To bring land or plants under cultivation; to tame a material, as bronze by fire.^[2][6]

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 k l 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. ^ 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de