Etymologically

exundo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 04:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsʊn.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzun.do][1]

Forms

exundō (present infinitive exundāre, perfect active exundāvī, supine exundātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + undō (“to surge, flow in waves”);[2][1][3] the TLL compares abundō.[3] That verb comes from unda (“wave”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *udōr and Proto-Indo-European *ud-ōr (“water”).[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Aetna, Seneca the Younger and Columella on, and often in Silius.[3] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan prose.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to gush forth or rise in flood, of streams and springs, as Pomponius Mela's Nile rising under the summer star, and figuratively of feelings, as Seneca's overflowing grief.[2] The Aetna has flame pouring out like a wave over the fields, and Silius, transitively, a peak belching smoke.[2] With the ablative it is to overflow with something: Seneca has ground running with blood, and Columella hives teeming with new brood; it is also to be in excess.[2] Tacitus uses it of things cast up by storms on the opposite shores.[2][5] Augustine explains it as riches overflowing like a spring.[3] Church Latin glosses it overflow, abound.[6]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of overflowing grief and blood.[2][3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of teeming hives.[2][3]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius of belching smoke.[2]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of things cast ashore.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To gush forth, rise in flood, overflow; of feelings, to well up.[2][5][1][6]
  2. Of fire or smoke, to pour out;[2] (transitive) to belch forth.[2]
  3. To overflow with, abound in; to be in excess.[2][6]
  4. To be cast up by the waves.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • exundantia
  • exundātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson