Etymologically
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exosculor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsoːs.kʊ.ɫɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzɔs.ku.lor][1]

Forms

exōsculor (present infinitive exōsculārī, perfect active exōsculātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] The perfect participle is sometimes passive in sense, “kissed”.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out, thoroughly”) + ōsculor (“to kiss”).[2][1][4] De Vaan lists ōsculum (“kiss”) and ōsculor among the derivatives of ōs1 (“mouth”),[5] which goes back to Proto-Italic *ōs- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃eh₁-os (“mouth”).[5] Cognate with Sanskrit आस् (ā́s-, “mouth”) and Hittite aiš (“mouth”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Seneca the Elder's Controversiae on,[4] where a sentence that the rhetor Latro used to admire is said to have been not just admired but kissed, that is, praised to the skies.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to kiss fondly or eagerly.[2][3] Petronius has a man kissing another's chest and throwing his arms round his neck,[2][6] and Pliny the Elder says that when we kiss the eyes we seem to touch the soul itself.[2] Tacitus uses it of kissing a man's hands and wounds, Pliny the Younger of kissing a young man long and often, and Suetonius of a child's image kept in a bedroom and kissed.[2][3][7] Fronto asks his correspondent to kiss the ladies of the house for him.[2][7] Apuleius and Ammianus use the past participle in a passive sense, as in the goddess's footsteps having been kissed.[2][3]

The figurative sense, to show great fondness for or admire greatly, appears in Seneca the Elder and in Gellius, whose senate admires a boy's loyalty and intelligence;[2][6] Macrobius repeats Gellius' phrase.[7]

Timeline

  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of kissing a man's chest.[2][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of kissing the eyes.[2][8]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of kissing hands and wounds.[3][8]
  • 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it in a letter.[2][8]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of admiring a boy's loyalty.[2][8]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the participle of kissed footsteps.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To kiss fondly or eagerly.[2][3]
  2. (figurative) To show great fondness for, admire greatly, praise highly.[2][3][7]

Word family

  • exosculātiō

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 o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de