emendo

Forms

ēmendō (present infinitive ēmendāre, perfect active ēmendāvī, supine ēmendātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- (“out”) and mendum (“fault, blemish”) or menda, with the verb suffix -ō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *m(e)ndo- and compares Old Irish mennar (“blemish”) and possibly Old Irish mind (“sign, mark”); a link with Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”) is only a theoretical possibility.^[4] The grammarian Eutyches already derived the verb from ⟨menda⟩ or ⟨mendum⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in Varro and then in Cicero,^[3] who writes that just as a whole state is infected by the vices of its leaders, so it is set right by their self-restraint.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to free a person or a character from faults, correct or reform, to set right a fault, and to correct someone in words, as Phaedrus' “let whoever corrects a more learned man think it is said of himself”.^[2][5] It is to correct the errors in a document or text, as Valerius Maximus' hymn that had to be corrected in the public records.^[2] It is also to remedy physical defects, as Columella's neglected olive that recovers in one year, and to cure a disease, as in Petronius, and to make up for something, as Nepos' Themistocles whose youthful faults were made good by great virtues.^[2]

The TLL notes it is rare in Cicero, Hirtius and Publilius, becomes common from Horace and is frequent in Pliny's Natural History and Quintilian.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “amend, chastise”.^[6] Through Old French it gave English amend in the early 13th century, and it was borrowed as emend about 1400.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro.^[3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of reforming the state.^[2][8]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus of correcting a more learned man.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella of an olive tree.^[2][8]
• c. 1400 – Borrowed into English as emend.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To free from faults, correct, improve, reform; to criticise (a mistake).^[2][5][1]
2. To correct (a text), emend.^[2][1]
3. To remedy (physical defects); to cure (a disease).^[2][1]
4. To compensate for, make good;^[2][1][6] (Ecclesiastical Latin) to chastise.^[2][1][6]

Word family

• coemendatus
• ēmendābilis
• ēmendātiō
• ēmendātor
• ēmendātrix
• inemendatus
• ēmendātē
• ēmendātus

Related words

• mendum
• menda
• mendāx
• mendīcus
• corrigō
• English emend
• English amend

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes corrigere, to set right like a strict schoolmaster who makes the crooked straight, from ēmendāre, to improve like an experienced teacher and friend.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper