expio

Forms

expiō (present infinitive expiāre, perfect active expiāvī, supine expiātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + piō (“to appease, purify”).^[2][1][3] The verb piō is from pius (“dutiful, pious”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *pwījos and Proto-Indo-European *puH-yo- (“purifying”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to purify”).^[4][1] Cognate with Umbrian pihatu (“to reconcile”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Cato's Origines, where Orestes is said to have come to expiate his mother's murder.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to atone to the gods for a sin, and to make amends for a wrong done to people, as Caesar's soldiers who made good a defeat by their courage.^[2][5] Cicero uses it of the gods punishing crimes, of purifying the forum from the traces of crime, of averting an omen by rites, and of appeasing the gods, as the people who wanted the power of Ceres appeased by punishment.^[2] Columella uses it in a transferred sense, to cleanse straw thoroughly with sulphur.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “cleanse, purify; make amends for, make atonement for”.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of Orestes expiating a murder.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of purifying, punishing and appeasing.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of making amends for a defeat.^[2][7]
• c. 1600 – Its past participle gives English expiate.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To atone for, expiate; to make amends for.^[2][5][1]
2. To take vengeance for, punish.^[2][1]
3. To purify from ritual uncleanness; to cleanse thoroughly.^[2][5][1]
4. To avert an omen by rites.^[2][1]
5. To appease, propitiate.^[2][1]

Word family

• expiātiō
• expiator
• expiātrix
• expiatus
• inexpiatus
• inexpiābilis

Related words

• expiātōrius
• piō
• pius
• English expiate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com