erudio

Forms

ērudiō (present infinitive ērudīre, perfect active ērudīvī or ērudiī, supine ērudītum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + rudis (“rough, unskilled”) + -iō,^[2][1][3] that is, to free from roughness.^[4] De Vaan reports two competing etymologies of rudis: a link with Old High German grioz (“sand, gravel”) and Lithuanian grúdas (“grain”), which needs a questionable loss of the initial consonant, and the derivation from the word for “red” favoured by most handbooks, which he doubts because the Latin word never shows that sense.^[5] Ancient writers explained it the same way: Claudius Donatus says it means to make the untaught novice better by teaching, a metaphor from clothes, and Cassiodorus that the learned man is as if taken out of rudeness.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first examples in the OLD are in Cicero, who speaks of men who taught many to make them better citizens.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to instruct, train or educate, frequent in Classical prose and poetry.^[2][4] In a weaker sense it is to inform someone of a matter, as in Cicero's letters, and Pliny the Elder uses it of refining an art.^[2] With a second accusative or a clause it names what is taught, as Ovid's Daedalus teaching his son the fatal art.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to discipline, instruct, teach.^[6] Its participle ērudītus gave English erudite in the early 15th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of teaching and informing.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of Daedalus teaching Icarus.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of refining an art.^[2][8]
• early 15th century – English erudite from the participle.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To instruct, train, educate.^[2][4][1]
2. To inform, enlighten on a point.^[2]
3. To refine, improve an art.^[2][1]
4. To teach someone something.^[2]

Word family

• ērudītiō
• ērudītor
• ērudītrix
• ērudītulus
• ērudītus
• inērudītus
• perērudītus

Related words

• rudis
• English erudite

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes erudire, education as freeing from ignorance in general, from formare, training for a particular sphere, and instituere, training for a particular employment.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ 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 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