Etymologically
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exolesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛk.sɔˈɫeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡ.zoˈlɛs.ko][1]

Forms

exolēscō (present infinitive exolēscere, perfect active exolēvī, supine exolētum); third conjugation, no passive[1] It is also spelled exsolēscō.[2][1] Suetonius has the perfect exoluī.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- and olēscō (“to grow”), compare abolēscō.[2][3] De Vaan lists it, dated from Plautus, among the derivatives of alō (“to feed, raise”), from Proto-Italic *ale/o- (“to feed”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-; the vowel ⟨o⟩ of such compounds, as in adolēscō, points to an old stative verb meaning to be growing up.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the prologue of the Poenulus, which bids no grown-up prostitute sit on the stage.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to grow up, become adult, and Paul the Deacon's Festus explains exolētus as one who has passed the age of growing.[2][5] From growing to the end it came to mean to grow old and stale or wear out, as Livy speaks of a family stock not yet exhausted, and to fade away, as Seneca's halos round the sun.[2] Above all it is to fall out of use or be forgotten, as Livy writes that favour towards a man's father had not yet faded.[2][1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a grown-up prostitute.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of fading favour and an exhausted family.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of halos that soon fade.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To grow up, become adult, mature.[2][5][1]
  2. To grow stale, wear out; to fade away, die out.[2][1]
  3. To fall out of use, become obsolete, be forgotten.[2][1]

Word family

  • exolētus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de