Etymologically
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evomo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈeː.wɔ.moː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.vo.mo][1]

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]

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