evomo

Forms

ēvomō (present infinitive ēvomere, perfect active ēvomuī, supine ēvomitum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out”) + vomō (“to vomit”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces vomō to Proto-Italic *weme/o- and Proto-Indo-European *uemh1- (“to vomit”), a root present that Latin made thematic.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit वमिति (vámiti, “to vomit, spit out”), Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō, “to vomit”) and Lithuanian vémti (“to vomit”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on.^[4] The earliest passage the OLD quotes is a line of Ennius' Annals in which it means to pour out words: cui … cuncta malaque et bona dictu evomeret, “to whom he might spew out everything, bad and good to say”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it Classical.^[5] Literally it is to vomit up: Cicero has a bird said to vomit up shells once it has digested them,^[2][5] and the Vulgate uses it in the Book of Jonah.^[5] From the mouth it is also to emit: Virgil's Cacus pours smoke from his jaws.^[2] Things discharge too: Vitruvius has flames thrown out around Vesuvius,^[2] Pliny the Nile emptying itself into the Egyptian sea,^[5] and Columella plants putting forth herbs.^[5] Cicero uses it of the city that has spewed out so great a plague, and of disgorging money that has been swallowed up.^[5] Figuratively it is to give vent to words and feelings, as Terence's iram evomere, to vent one's anger, and Cicero's virus acerbitatis suae, the venom of one's bitterness.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[4][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of pouring out words.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of venting anger.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, literal and figurative uses.^[2][5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of smoke from the mouth.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, in the Book of Jonah.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To vomit up, spew out.^[2][5][1]
2. To emit from the mouth; of things, to discharge, throw out; of a river, to empty itself.^[2][5]
3. To disgorge, give up (what has been swallowed, as money).^[5]
4. To give vent to (words, feelings), pour out.^[2][5]

Related words

• vomō
• vomitus

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de