Etymologically
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exentero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsɛn.tɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzɛn.te.ro][1]

Forms

exenterō (present infinitive exenterāre, perfect active exenterāvī, supine exenterātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled exinterō, the usual spelling in the manuscripts of Pliny the Elder.[2][3]

Etymology

According to the TLL and Wiktionary it is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐξεντερίζω (exenterízō, “to disembowel”), adapted to the Latin first conjugation.[4][1] The OLD prefers a formation from ex- and Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron, “gut”) with the verb ending ⟨-ō⟩, though it allows a direct borrowing.[2] The grammarian Caper already explained it from the Greek word for the entrails.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it jokingly in the Epidicus: acūtum cultrum habeō, senis quī exenterem marsuppium, “I have a sharp knife to gut the old man's purse with”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it is comic: to empty a purse or someone's funds, and figuratively to torment, as when a speaker says that waiting gnaws him and tears out his insides (exedor miser atque exenteror).[2][5] Lucilius has it too.[2] In its literal sense, to disembowel or gut, it appears in Hyginus of the killing of the Hydra, in Petronius of a cook who forgot to gut a pig, and in Pliny the Elder of a lizard, a puppy and a sea frog.[2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of gutting a purse and of being tormented.[2][6]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it.[2][6]
  • second half of the 1st century BC – Hyginus uses it of the Hydra.[2][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of gutting a pig.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of gutting animals.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To disembowel, eviscerate, gut.[2][3]
  2. (humorous) To empty (a purse, funds).[2][5]
  3. (figurative) To torment.[2][1]

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 m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de