Etymologically
Log in

exsorbeo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 09:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛksˈsɔr.be.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eksˈsɔr.be.o][1]

Forms

exsorbeō (present infinitive exsorbēre, perfect active exsorbuī, supine exsorptum); second conjugation[1] It is also spelled exorbeō.[2][3][4] Seneca has the perfect exsorpsī, and the TLL notes a rare third-conjugation form exsorbō.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + sorbeō (“to suck, swallow”).[2][4][1] De Vaan traces sorbeō to Proto-Italic *sorfeie- and Proto-Indo-European *srobh-eie- (“to take various sips, slurp”), with an imitative ablaut.[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek ῥοφέω (rhophéō, “to slurp, gulp”), Hittite šarāp- (“to sip”) and Lithuanian sur̃bti (“to suck”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is Plautus' Bacchides, where a character threatens that unless two hundred gold coins are returned he will suck the life out of both: animam amborum exsorbebo.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to swallow or gulp down, as Celsus' draught of neat wine with pepper,[2] and, of things, to soak up liquids, as a garment in Cicero that soaked up all the blood.[2] Figuratively it is to swallow up wealth or to swallow insults:[2] Cicero tells Antony that he had not merely tasted citizens' blood but drunk it up.[3] It is also to drain the juice from something, as the screech-owls in Ovid that suck children's breasts.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of sucking out eggs.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of sucking the life out of someone.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a garment soaking up blood.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of screech-owls sucking at children.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of gulping down wine.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To swallow, gulp down, suck up.[2][3][1]
  2. Of things: to soak up, absorb.[2]
  3. To swallow up (wealth); to swallow (insults); to exhaust.[2][1]
  4. To drain the juice from, suck out.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de