exsuco

Forms

exsūcō (present infinitive exsūcāre, perfect active exsūcāvī, supine exsūcātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ex- + sūcus (“juice, sap”).^[1][2][3]

The TLL, after Meyer-Lübke, traces Italian asciugare, French essuyer and Spanish enjugar to it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Vitruvius,^[2] who has the participle in decoctus exsucatusque, of something boiled down and drained of its juice.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it is a word of agriculture, medicine and cookery: Palladius uses it of the moisture drawn out of nuts,^[2] Caelius Aurelianus of horehound pressed for its juice,^[3][4] and Anthimus of the flesh of animals drained of blood and juice.^[4] Cassiodorus uses it figuratively.^[3][4]

Medieval writers also used it for a sponge soaking up a liquid, for a plant becoming juicy in spring, and for a substance reduced to a liquid.^[6] The copyists wrote it exsuco or exuco, and it is also spelled exsucco.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius has the participle exsucatus, drained of juice.^[4][2][7]
• end of 4th–beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of drawing the moisture out of nuts.^[2][7]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of pressing the juice out of horehound.^[3][4][7]
• 511 AD – Anthimus uses it of meat drained of its juices.^[4][7]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it figuratively.^[3][4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deprive of juice or sap; to extract the juice of, press out.^[3][4][5]
2. To draw out (moisture), dry.^[2][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) To absorb, soak up.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) To become juicy; to turn into a liquid.^[6]

Related words

• exsūgō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de