fortifico

Forms

fortificō (present infinitive fortificāre, perfect active fortificāvī, supine fortificātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fortis (“strong”) + faciō (“to make”), “to make strong”.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are medical: Vindicianus writes that sweet sleep strengthens and restores the body (corpus fortificat atque reformat).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short mark it post-classical;^[3][2][4] Caelius Aurelianus uses it of strengthening the body, the teeth and a new scar, and Augustine has it in a sermon.^[3][2][4] In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of making stronger or more resistant and added that of fortifying a place.^[6] Through Old French fortifiier it gave English fortify in the 15th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 4th century AD – Vindicianus uses it of sleep strengthening the body.^[2][5]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it often in his medical works.^[2][4][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in a sermon.^[4][5]
• early 15th century – English fortify, from Old French, is first used of increasing the efficacy of medicine.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make strong, strengthen (especially the body, in medicine).^[3][4][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) To fortify (a place).^[6]

Word family

• fortificātiō

Related words

• English fortify

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com