emollio

Forms

ēmolliō (present infinitive ēmollīre, perfect active ēmollīvī or ēmolliī, supine ēmollītum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + mollis (“soft”) with the verbal suffix ⟨-iō⟩, or the compound of molliō (“to soften”) with the prefix.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces mollis to Proto-Italic *moldu- and Proto-Indo-European *ml̥d-u- (“soft”): the u-stem adjective was remade as an i-stem in Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short suggest it is not found before Augustus;^[6] the TLL's earliest authors are Ovid and Livy.^[3] Livy writes that the moisture iaculorum amenta emollierat, “had softened the straps of the javelins”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to make soft: Columella has figs softened by the sun, and Celsus and Pliny the Elder use it in medicine of relaxing the bowels and soothing inflammation.^[2][7] Figuratively it means to take away harshness: Pliny has a chalk that softens colours, and Ovid the line that learning the liberal arts emollit mores, “softens one's character”.^[2][7] In a bad sense it means to weaken or enervate: Livy writes of the fear that a city's excessive pleasantness would soften an army, and Tacitus peoples not yet softened by a long peace.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of moisture softening javelin straps and of an army softened by a city's pleasures.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid writes that the liberal arts soften one's character.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of relaxing the bowels and softening colours.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus writes of peoples not yet weakened by a long peace.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make soft, soften.^[2][6]
2. (medicine) To relax the bowels; to soothe an inflammation.^[2][7]
3. To take away the harshness of, mellow, refine; to make gentle, mollify.^[2][6]
4. To take away the vigour of, weaken, enervate, make effeminate.^[2][6][9]

Related words

• mollis
• molliō

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn