Etymologically
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exinanio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛk.sɪˈnaː.ni.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡ.ziˈnaː.ni.o][1]

Forms

exināniō (present infinitive exinānīre, perfect active exinānīvī or exināniī, supine exinānītum); fourth conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + inānis (“empty”) + -iō,[2] or ex- with ināniō (“to empty”).[1][3] De Vaan finds no certain etymology for inānis.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first instance is in the historian Sisenna, exinānītīs castrīs, of an emptied camp.[2]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it of houses emptied of their goods and fields laid waste by Verres.[5] Vitruvius has it of a marshy site dug out, Seneca of draining the body by sweating, and Pliny the Elder of passing urine first.[2] Curtius uses it of weakening a battle line by stretching it.[2] In Christian Latin it has a mystical sense: the Vulgate says that Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7).[3] Stelten gives “empty, pour out, exhaust; raze, destroy utterly”.[6]

Timeline

  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna, of a camp emptied.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of houses stripped by Verres.[5][7]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of draining the body.[2][7]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of Christ emptying himself.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To empty, remove the contents of.[2][5][1][6]
  2. To drain, dry up; to weaken, exhaust.[2][1]
  3. To strip (a place) of its contents, despoil; to strip (a person) of possessions.[2][5][1]
  4. To get rid of by emptying or draining.[2]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Of Christ, to empty himself in taking human form.[3]

Word family

  • exinānītiō
  • reexinanio

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de