extenuo

Forms

extenuō (present infinitive extenuāre, perfect active extenuāvī, supine extenuātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + tenuō (“to make thin”).^[2][1][3] tenuō is from tenuis (“thin”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tn̥(a)u- and Proto-Indo-European *tn̥h₂-(e)u- (“thin”).^[4] He compares Sanskrit तनु (tanú-, “thin, slender”), Ancient Greek ταναός (tanaós, “thin, elongated”) and Lithuanian tę́vas (“thin, slender”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro has a twig whittled down with a knife, and says that expense will not reduce the yield.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero writes of air that rises when rarefied and gathers into clouds when it thickens.^[2] In medicine Celsus advises the stout to reduce their bulk, and uses it of relieving a condition.^[2] In rhetoric the Rhetorica ad Herennium calls the plain style ⟨extenuāta⟩.^[2] It is also to make something seem less, to belittle: Cicero speaks of wanting to play down a charge.^[2] Lucretius scans it with a consonantal ⟨u⟩.^[2][3] Church Latin also glosses it to weaken, punish, chasten.^[6] English extenuate comes from its participle in the 1530s.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of whittling and of reducing yield.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of rarefied air and of belittling a charge.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of reducing the body.^[2][5]
• 1530s – English extenuate, from the participle.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make thin or narrow, whittle down;^[2][8][1] (medicine) to reduce the body.^[2][8][1]
2. To make less dense, rarefy; to thin a liquid.^[2][8]
3. To diminish, lessen;^[2][8][1] (medicine) to relieve;^[2][8][1] (rhetoric) to make plain or meagre.^[2][8][1]
4. To make out to be less important, belittle.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To weaken; to chasten.^[6]

Word family

• extenuātiō

Related words

• tenuis
• attenuō
• English extenuate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press