Etymologically
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expaveo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈspa.we.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ekˈspaː.ve.o][1]

Forms

expaveō (present infinitive expavēre); second conjugation, no perfect or supine stems[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + paveō (“to be afraid”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder is the first to use it, of people bitten by a rabid dog who dread drinking.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is rare: Statius uses it in a preface with the object hanc audāciam stilī nostrī, “this boldness of our pen”,[6][4] and Martianus Capella has it too.[6][4] Palladius' history of the monks, in Latin, uses it with dē of a demon amazed at a trick.[3] The TLL assigns the perfect expāvī to expavēscō.[3]

Medieval writers used it both without an object, “to be afraid”, and with one, “to shrink from”: Hrotsvit of Gandersheim and the Carmina Burana have both.[7] Latin texts from Hungary use it of dreading ruin or an uprising.[8] Wiktionary lists Italian spavere as a possible descendant, and Romanian speria and Occitan espavordir as reshaped ones.[1]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of those who dread drinking after a dog's bite.[3][9]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it in a preface.[6][9]
  • 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it.[6][9]
  • 12th/13th century – The Carmina Burana use it of shrinking from what is given.[7][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be terrified at, to dread.[2][6][4][10]
  2. (Late Latin) To be amazed (at something, with dē).[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) To be afraid.[7][8]

Word family

  • expavidus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
  9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.