flaveo

Forms

flāveō (present infinitive flāvēre, perfect active flāvuī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flāvus (“yellow, golden”) + -eō, a stative verb.^[2][3][4] De Vaan tentatively traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-uo- (“yellow”), comparing Middle Irish blá (“yellow”) and the Germanic words for “blue”, but calls the link with the Germanic words hazardous.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first use is the participle in Catullus, flaventia arva, “golden fields”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that the finite verb is found only in a few places (Ovid's Amores, Columella, Paulinus of Nola, Isidore); elsewhere it is the present participle.^[3] Columella writes that the crop will turn golden with ripe ears,^[8][9] and Ovid uses it of hair that is blond.^[6] The participle flāvēns is used of wax, of sand, of hair and especially of ripe grain;^[9][8] Virgil describes Clytius as flāvēns prīmā lānūgine mālās, “golden with the first down on his cheeks”.^[8] Medieval writers still use it of golden metal and of golden cups.^[10]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has flāventia arva.^[6][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses the participle of fields and of a young man's cheeks.^[8][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of blond hair and of wax.^[6][9][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of ripening grain.^[8][7]
• c. 353–431 AD – Paulinus of Nola uses the finite verb.^[3][11][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be yellow, be golden or blond.^[2][8][9]

Related words

• flāvus
• flāvēscō

Usage notes

Conte warns not to confuse the infinitive flāvēre with flāvēre, a by-form of the perfect flāvērunt of flō, “to blow”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.