exsanguis

Forms

exsanguis (neuter exsangue); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled exanguis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- and sanguis (“blood”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan explains the first part of ⟨sanguis⟩ from the oblique stem of Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”), cognate with Hittite ešḫar (“blood”) and Sanskrit असृज् (ásṛj-, “blood”); the second part is less certain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Caecilius,^[4] who has someone flying along pale and panting.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “bloodless, drained of blood”, as Lucretius' boneless and bloodless creatures and Cicero's man cut by many wounds, at his last breath and bloodless.^[2][3] Often it is “pale”, from fear or anger, as in Caecilius.^[2][1] Figuratively it is “drained of strength, exhausted”, as Cicero's man exhausted by every vice, and of style “lifeless”, in the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “bloodless”.^[6]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius of someone pale and panting.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of bloodless creatures.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bloodless, dying man.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bloodless, drained of blood.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Pale, wan.^[2][1]
3. Exhausted, feeble; of style, lifeless.^[2][1]

Word family

• exsanguescō
• exsanguinātus

Related words

• sanguis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson