exsucus

Forms

exsūcus (feminine exsūca, neuter exsūcum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] Also spelled ⟨exūcus⟩ and ⟨exsuccus⟩.^[1][3][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“without”) + sūcus (“juice, sap”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first used of style: Quintilian says that the imitators of the Attic orators are dry, sapless and bloodless,^[1][3][4] and Seneca the Elder speaks of a dry and sapless declaimer.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The OLD records only this figurative sense, of a lean, thin style.^[1][4] The literal sense, “without juice, dried up”, is later and found only in the comparative: Tertullian asks what if the very substance of the body is drier,^[4][3] and the Itinerarium Alexandri describes a young man of middle height whose limbs are rather lean.^[4][6] The TLL records a derivative exsūcidus.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of orators with a dry style;^[4][2] Seneca the Elder also has it of a declaimer.^[4][2]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the comparative of the substance of the body.^[4][2]
• c. 340 AD – The Itinerarium Alexandri uses it of lean limbs.^[4][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of style) Dry, meagre, without vigour.^[1][4][7]
2. (Late Latin) Without juice, sapless; dried up, lean.^[3][4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.