formico

Forms

formīcō (present infinitive formīcāre); first conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin formīca (“ant”).^[1][2][3] The TLL and Georges compare Greek μυρμηκίζω (murmēkízō), formed in the same way from the word for the ant.^[2][4]

The TLL, after Meyer-Lübke, traces Italian formicare, French fourmiller and Spanish hormigar to it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder has it twice in the Natural History:^[5][3] of the skin, which tingles as if ants were crawling on it after cantharides are applied, and of a weak, irregular pulse.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The two Classical uses are both Pliny's: the itching or tingling of the skin, and the slight, uneven beat of the pulse.^[5][6] Lewis and Short render the second as creeping or crawling like ants.^[3] Stelten glosses it as to creep or crawl.^[7] The noun formīcātiō is derived from it.^[1]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the pulse and of tingling skin.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of the skin) To tingle or itch as if ants were crawling on it.^[5][4][6]
2. (of the pulse) To beat weakly and unevenly.^[5][4]
3. To creep or crawl like ants.^[3][7][1]

Word family

• formīcātiō

Related words

• formīca
• formīcābilis
• formīcīnus
• formīcōsus
• formīcula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de