fluito

Forms

fluitō (present infinitive fluitāre, perfect active fluitāvī, supine fluitātum); first conjugation^[1] Lucretius has the contracted flūtō, Varro a deponent flūtor, and Seneca and Pliny the Elder fluvitō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a frequentative from Latin fluō (“to flow”) + -itō.^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces fluō to Proto-Italic *flow-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleuH- (“to flow over”).^[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek φλύω (phlúō, “to boil over”), φλέω (phléō, “to abound”) and Lithuanian bliáuti (“to bleat, sob”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[5] who uses it of the sea flowing round in great windings, and of awnings stretched over great theatres that flap and stream.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to flow or run, of liquids, and to swarm or stream, of crowds, as in Petronius.^[2] Most often it means to be carried along by the waves, to float or drift, as Virgil's ship drifting without its helmsman, and to float without sinking, as Cicero's floating sea beasts.^[2] Of clothes and hair it means to hang loose or stream.^[2] It also means to move unsteadily, waver, and figuratively to be uncertain.^[2][1] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the flowing sea and of streaming awnings.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of floating sea creatures.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a drifting ship.^[2][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius of swarming crowds.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of liquids, to flow, run; of crowds, to swarm, stream.^[2][3][1]
2. To be carried by the waves, float, drift.^[2][3][1]
3. Of clothes or hair, to hang loose, stream, wave.^[2][1]
4. To move unsteadily, waver; to be uncertain.^[2][1]

Related words

• fluō
• flūctus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de