erumpo

Forms

ērumpō (present infinitive ērumpere, perfect active ērūpī, supine ēruptum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ex- (“out”) + rumpō (“to break, burst”).^[2][3] De Vaan traces rumpō to Proto-Italic *ru-n-p- and Proto-Indo-European *Hru-n-p- (“to break”), cognate with Sanskrit रोपयति (ropáyati, “causes racking pain”) and Old English rēofan (“to break, tear”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, of cabbage as a medicine: it brings swellings to a head and makes them burst (ērumpit), a transitive use that Lewis & Short call mostly Old Latin.^[5] Pacuvius has the winds breaking out from every side (undique omnēs ventī ērumpunt).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is usually intransitive: of people and animals, to burst out from a restraint, as Catiline broke out of the city (Cicero), and of troops, to make a sortie (Caesar).^[2] Of natural forces it is said of wind and fire, of bodily fluids such as pus, and of springs bursting from a plain (Lucretius).^[2] It also means to burst on the view, become suddenly visible, as stars shone out in daylight (Seneca), and of plants and buds, to sprout.^[2] Figuratively it is the breaking out of feelings, faults and events.^[5][1]

Church Latin glosses it “erupt, break up, break out”.^[6] English erupt dates from the 1650s, of diseases, and of volcanoes from 1770.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, transitive, of making a swelling burst.^[5][7]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of winds breaking out.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Catiline breaking out of Rome.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of a sortie.^[2][7]
• 1650s – English erupt.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To burst out, break out;^[2][1][6] (military) to make a sortie.^[2][1][6]
2. (of wind, fire, fluids, rivers) To burst forth.^[2]
3. To appear suddenly;^[2] (of plants) to sprout.^[2]
4. (figurative) To break out (into an emotion or act); (of events) to come to a head.^[5][1]
5. (transitive) To cause to burst; to break out of.^[5][2]

Word family

• ēruptiō
• eruptor

Related words

• rumpō
• English erupt

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 c d e 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de