extollo

Forms

extollō (present infinitive extollere); third conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1] It has no perfect of its own;^[2] Seneca the Elder has a pluperfect exsustulissent.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ex- (“out, up”) + tollō (“to lift, raise”).^[3][4] De Vaan traces tollō to Proto-Italic *tolna/o- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *tl-n(e)-h₂- (“to carry”), cognate with Old Irish tlenaid (“lifts, takes away”) and with tulī and lātus, which serve as the perfect and participle of ferō.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Amphitruo: the two snakes raise their heads (extollunt ambō capita).^[3] In the Mostellaria he uses it of praise: would you rather be falsely blamed than truly extolled?^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its literal senses are lifting something up (Cato's vine shoots), raising a part of the body, holding something aloft (Brutus raising his bloody dagger, in Cicero), and raising buildings or making plants grow up.^[3] Ennius has winds vying to raise the waves.^[2] The voice can be raised too.^[3] Figuratively it is to raise a fallen opponent to his feet, and, very often, to praise a person or magnify an event, as Cicero's opponents belittle his fortune and exalt their own.^[3][2]

Church Latin glosses it “lift up, raise up, exalt”, with the passive “to be insolent”.^[6] English extol dates from about 1400, first meaning “to lift up”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of snakes raising their heads and of praise.^[3][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of winds raising the waves.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Brutus' raised dagger.^[3][7]
• c. 1400 – English extol.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lift up, raise; to hold aloft.^[3][1][6]
2. To build up (buildings); to make (plants) grow.^[3]
3. To raise (the voice).^[3]
4. To praise, extol; to magnify.^[3][1]
5. To exalt, lift (to a higher state); (Ecclesiastical Latin, passive) to be insolent.^[1][6]

Word family

• extollentia
• superextollō

Related words

• tollō
• English extol

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de