exululo

Forms

exululō (present infinitive exululāre, perfect active exululāvī, supine exululātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + ululō (“to howl”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan calls that verb an onomatopoeia for a sound like /u/; a form ⟨*ul-⟩ or ⟨*ulul-⟩ may already have existed in Proto-Indo-European, but this cannot be proven.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Ovid on.^[3] In the Metamorphoses a man changed into a wolf howls and tries in vain to speak: exululat frūstrāque loquī cōnātur.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides wolves it is used of people in a frenzy, above all of Bacchants, and of people tormented by pain or grief: in Silius Italicus the mothers howl with their hair let down.^[3][5] Scribonius Largus uses it of a poison that drives the mind to madness and makes the victim howl.^[3]

As a transitive verb it means to call on a god with howling: the Mother Cybele is invoked in Phrygian measures, Phrygiīs exululāta modīs.^[2][3] The past participle can also have a middle sense, of a Bacchant who has worked herself up with cries.^[2][6] In the Passion of Perpetua the martyr cries out when she is struck.^[3]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a man turned wolf, of Bacchants and of the worship of Cybele.^[2][3][7]
• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of a poison causing frenzy.^[3][7]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of mothers in mourning.^[3][5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To howl out, shriek.^[2][3][8]
2. (transitive) To invoke with howls;^[2][6] (passive in a middle sense) to work oneself up by howling.^[2][6]

Related words

• ululō

References

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