Etymologically
Log in

flato

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 04:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫaː.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈflaː.to][1]

Forms

flātō (present infinitive flātāre, perfect active flātāvī, supine flātātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flō (“to blow”), a frequentative formed on the past participle flātus.[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Arnobius is its first author: he speaks of singers blowing on the trumpet, pipes and reed.[2][4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a Late Latin verb with the sense of flō, used without an object and with one.[2] Georges reads it in the Vatican manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus, of furies “fanning slaughter and fires”, where the editions print flagitantēs by conjecture.[5][2] Augustine uses it figuratively, of fanning a flame of the heart: in a letter he speaks of feeding and fanning the fire of love,[2][7] and in the Confessions of men who blew the fire of their hearts into trifles.[2][8] A Polish grammatical source of the 16th century glosses it as “to blow”.[9] It lives on in Italian fiatare and Old Occitan flazar.[2][1]

Timeline

  • 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of players blowing on trumpet and pipes.[2][6]
  • c. 390 AD – A manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus has it, of fanning slaughter and fires.[5][2][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of fanning the fire of love.[2][7][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, Late Latin) To blow (on an instrument).[4][5][3][2]
  2. (transitive, Late Latin) To blow on, fan, kindle;[5][2][7] (figuratively) to fan (a passion).[4][3][7]

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also had a noun flatō, genitive flatōnis, a form of fladō, a flat cake and, in a French document of 1353, a blank for striking coins.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Dvoretsky, I. Kh. (1976), Latinsko-russkij slovarʹ [Latin–Russian Dictionary], 2nd ed., Moscow: Russkij jazyk
  9. ^ Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  11. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  12. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre