exosus

Forms

exōsus (feminine exōsa, neuter exōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + ōsus (“having hated”), with the participle ⟨ōsus⟩ of ōdī (“to hate”).^[2][3][1] Wiktionary takes the prefix as an intensifier and notes that, unlike perōsus, it has no finite verb beside it.^[1] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *ōd- and the perfect Proto-Indo-European *h3e-h3(o)d- (“to hate”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Virgil;^[5] in the Aeneid we read si nondum exosus ad unum Troianos, “if you do not yet hate the Trojans to the last man”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is active and takes an accusative: hating thoroughly, detesting.^[2][6] Virgil has it of battles and wars, Ovid of the earth, and in post-Augustan prose Curtius has someone who detests the customs of his country and Florus someone who hates arms.^[6][7] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^[6] Late Latin also uses it with a genitive, as Boethius' vitae huius exosa, weary of this life.^[6][7]

In post-classical Latin it also became passive, hated, odious:^[6][1] Eutropius has someone hated by all for his crimes, Macrobius those hated by the gods, and Ammianus uses it several times.^[6][7] The Vulgate has exosum habere, to hold in hatred.^[6] Church and medieval Latin know it as detested, hateful.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of hating the Trojans, battles and wars.^[6][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of hating the earth.^[6][5]
• c. 370 AD – Eutropius, in the passive sense “hated”.^[6][7][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus, in the passive sense.^[6][7][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hating thoroughly, detesting, abhorring (with an accusative, later a genitive).^[2][6][1]
2. (Late Latin) Hated, odious, detested.^[6][1][8][9]

Related words

• ōsus
• perōsus
• ōdī
• odiōsus
• odium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill