evaporo

Forms

ēvapōrō (present infinitive ēvapōrāre, perfect active ēvapōrāvī, supine ēvapōrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + vapōrō (“to steam”), the verb of vapor (“steam, vapour”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Aulus Gellius, in a passage taken from Aristotle: the lightest part of water is the part that evaporates (quod ēvapōrātur).^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The OLD gives it the sense “to emit as vapour”.^[2] After Gellius it occurs in Solinus, Firmicus Maternus and the medical writers; the TLL notes that Christian authors took it chiefly from medical usage.^[3] Tertullian used it figuratively for making something vanish, and Solinus and Ambrose intransitively for fading or vanishing away.^[6][3] Tertullian's text has the spelling ⟨exvap-⟩.^[3] In Medieval Latin it meant to sweat out or give off as vapour, to turn into vapour, to drive out by a fomentation, and intransitively to stream out or vanish.^[7] English borrowed it in the early 15th century from the Late Latin participle.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius uses it of the part of water that turns into vapour.^[3][9][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it figuratively, of making something vanish.^[6][5]
• 343/350 AD – Firmicus Maternus uses it of bodies giving off a goatish smell.^[3][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as evaporate, “to draw off humours as vapour”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give off as vapour; to disperse in vapour, evaporate.^[2][4][9]
2. (figurative) To make vanish, dissipate.^[6]
3. (intransitive) To vanish, fade away.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin, medicine) To drive out with a fomentation.^[7]

Related words

• English evaporate

References

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