epulor

Forms

epulor (present infinitive epulārī, perfect active epulātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] An active epulo and passive forms are also found.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin epulae (“banquet”), a deponent verb.^[3][1] Lewis & Short derive it from epulum (“feast”).^[4] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ep(V)lo- for epulum, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-lo-, as Nussbaum proposed; the only candidate within Latin is apiō (“to seize”), a banquet being an opportunity to grab food.^[5] He compares Old High German uoba (“festival”), but doubts the connection.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Accius, of servants feasting there with their masters.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to dine sumptuously, feast or banquet, as Cicero writes of the pleasure of one who feasts, and Livy and Tacitus use it; with an ablative it means to feast on something.^[3][4] In general it is simply to take one's food, as Columella's bailiff who eats in sight of the farmhands as an example of frugality.^[3] Transitively, Virgil's Dido asks why she could not have served Ascanius up as a feast on his father's table.^[3] In Church Latin it means to feast, make merry, rejoice.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of servants feasting with masters.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the pleasure of feasting.^[4][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of serving someone up as a feast.^[3][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a bailiff's meals.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dine sumptuously, feast, banquet; with an ablative, to feast on.^[3][4][1]
2. To take one's food, eat.^[3][1]
3. Transitively, to feast upon.^[3]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To make merry, rejoice.^[6]

Related words

• epulae
• epulāris
• epulō
• epulum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de