emungo

Forms

ēmungō (present infinitive ēmungere, perfect active ēmūnxī, supine ēmūnctum); third conjugation^[1] Plautus has the syncopated perfect ēmūnxtī for ēmūnxistī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + *mungō, a compound of a simple verb that is not attested on its own.^[2][4] De Vaan traces the stem to Proto-Italic *mung- (“to wipe”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)mu-n-k- (“to brush off”), comparing nasal presents in Sanskrit and Baltic and the meaning of Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow one's nose”).^[5] He lists it under mūcus (“mucus”), but notes that it is not certain the two belong to the same root.^[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit मुञ्चामि (muñcā́mi, “to release”), Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “slime, mucus”) and Lithuanian mùkti (“to walk away”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[5] both for wiping the nose and, colloquially, for cheating someone: ēmungam hominem probē hodiē, “I'll fleece the man properly today”, says a character in the Bacchides.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In comedy the two senses are played against each other: in the Mostellaria one character complains of having been fleeced, is asked whether his nose is running, and answers that his whole brain has been wiped out of his head.^[2] Terence has ēmūnxī argentō senēs, “I have cleaned the old men out of their money”, and Horace uses it of Pythias getting a talent by fleecing Simo.^[2][6]

The literal sense, to wipe one's nose, is found in Varro, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Martial and Juvenal, and in Suetonius' life of Horace, of a father wiping his nose on his arm.^[2][6] Horace calls Lucilius ēmūnctae nāris, “of a well-wiped nose”, that is, a shrewd judge, and Quintilian calls certain Attic writers ēmūnctī, of refined taste.^[2][7] Medieval German sources keep both the literal sense and the phrase for a shrewd person.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for wiping the nose and for swindling.^[2][9]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of cheating old men out of money.^[2][9]
• 65–8 BC – Horace calls Lucilius a man “of a well-wiped nose”.^[2][9]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses the participle for writers of refined taste.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wipe the mucus from (the nose); (passive or reflexive) to blow or wipe one's nose.^[2][3]
2. (figurative, perfect participle) Of refined, discerning taste.^[2][7]
3. (colloquial) To trick, swindle, defraud.^[2][3]

Word family

• ēmunctiō
• ēmūnctōrium

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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de