exaresco

Forms

exārēscō (present infinitive exārēscere, perfect active exāruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + ārēscō (“to become dry”),^[2][1][3] the inchoative of āreō (“to be dry”).^[4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb, which goes back to Proto-Italic *ās-ē- (“to be dry”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s-eh₁- (“to be dry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[4][3] In the Rudens wet clothes are promised to dry out, and in the Miles gloriosus a speaker says he has not yet dried up for pleasant things.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In its literal sense it was used of things drying out completely and of plants shrivelling: Varro of harvested grain, Columella of clay, and Suetonius of a wood that withered to the roots.^[2][5] With moisture as subject it meant to dry up: Cicero says that a tear dries quickly, and Caesar that springs dried up in the heat.^[2][5] The jurists used it of lakes and pools.^[5]

Figuratively it meant to die out or become obsolete: Cicero says that certain speeches have so dried up that they can hardly be seen, and that the old Roman wit has dried up.^[2][5][6] Apuleius writes that pity had dried up entirely,^[2] and Ammianus that music had not quite dried up among some people.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of drying clothes and, figuratively, of a person.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of grain drying out.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of tears and of speeches and wit that have died out.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of springs drying up in the heat.^[2][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius says that pity has dried up.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become thoroughly dry; of plants, to wither or shrivel.^[2][5][6]
2. Of moisture, springs or tears: to dry up.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To die out, become obsolete, disappear.^[2][5][8]

Related words

• āreō
• ārēscō
• āridus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier