exsatio

Forms

exsatiō (present infinitive exsatiāre, perfect active exsatiāvī, supine exsatiātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled exatiō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + satiō¹ (“to satisfy”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists ⟨satiāre⟩, attested from Lucretius, among the derivatives of satis (“enough”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sh₂-ti- (“satisfaction, satiation”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Ovid and Livy on;^[3] Lewis & Short note that it is not found before the Augustan period.^[5] Livy uses it of men who would not take up arms until they were sated with food and wine.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is figurative, of satisfying a person's passions or glutting the passions themselves:^[2] Livy writes that the people were not satisfied even by the death of Publius Scipio, and Ovid of a house glutted with disaster.^[2][5] Poets extend it to weapons sated with blood: Silius Italicus to swords and Statius to missiles.^[5][2] Tacitus uses it of people who, once they began asking for money, would never be satisfied.^[2]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of soldiers sated with food and wine.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a house glutted with disaster.^[5][6]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of swords sated with blood.^[5][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of people never satisfied.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To satiate, fill (with food and drink).^[2][5]
2. To satisfy (a person or a passion) fully, glut.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de