exosso

Forms

exossō (present infinitive exossāre, perfect active exossāvī, supine exossātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- and os² (“bone”) with the verb suffix -ō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it beside the adjective exos (“boneless”);^[4] Georges derives it from ⟨exossis⟩, another form of that adjective.^[5] The noun os goes back to Proto-Italic *ost and Proto-Indo-European *h₃o/est- (“bone”), the source also of Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon, “bone”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4] in jokes about boning a person like a fish: in the Pseudolus a character threatens to bone someone as a cook bones a moray.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It was a kitchen word: Terence and Plautus use it of boning a conger or moray,^[7][6] Petronius has it,^[6] and the cookery book of Apicius speaks of boning fish, a sucking pig and thrushes.^[5]

Lucretius uses exossātō pectore for a supple, as if boneless, body,^[7][5] and Persius calls a field cleared of stones exossātus ager.^[7][5] In the Vulgate it renders the devouring of a flock down to the bones, which Lewis and Short take as breaking someone's strength.^[7][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus jokes about boning a person like a moray.^[6][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of boning a conger.^[7][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the participle for a supple body.^[7][8]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of a field cleared of stones.^[7][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of a flock devoured to the bone.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remove the bones from, to bone or fillet (fish, meat).^[2][7][5]
2. (poetic, participle) Supple, as if boneless; of a field, cleared of stones.^[7][5][6]
3. (Late Latin) To devour to the bone; to break the strength of.^[7][5]

Related words

• os²
• exos

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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 i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de