frigesco

Forms

frīgēscō (present infinitive frīgēscere, perfect active frīxī or frīguī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] Jerome has the perfect frīguī.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin frīgeō (“to be cold”) + -ēscō, an inchoative verb.^[3][2] That verb is derived from frīgus (“cold”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *srīgos- and Proto-Indo-European *sriHǵ-o/es- (“frost, bitter cold”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ῥῖγος (rhîgos, “cold, frost”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato has it first,^[4] in a recipe: a mixture is boiled and poured into a dish so that it cools.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it of the earth growing cold deep down, Celsus of water and of the extremities of the body, and Tacitus of feet and hands growing cold.^[3][2] Quintilian says blood drawn back by fear grows pale and cold.^[2] Lewis and Short note that it is mostly ante-classical and post-Augustan and perhaps not used by Cicero.^[2] Persius uses it of thresholds that may grow cold, that is, receive someone coldly.^[3][2] In a letter to Cicero, Caelius plays on it: “we here are freezing with cold”.^[3][2]

In a figurative sense it means to cool off or fall flat: Quintilian uses it of feeling that cools in a speech and warns against letting an appeal to pity grow cold.^[3][2] Valerius Flaccus uses it of a person growing torpid in grief.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to become cold.^[5]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a mixture left to cool.^[3][4][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the earth growing cold.^[3][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of water and of the limbs.^[3][6]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of a cold welcome.^[3][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of feelings that cool.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of feet and hands.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grow cold, cool, lose heat.^[3][2]
2. (figurative) To slacken, cool off (of a feeling); to fall flat (of speech); to become torpid (of a person).^[3][2]
3. (figurative) To become cold towards someone.^[2]

Word family

• dēfrīgescō
• infrīgescō
• interfrigesco
• perfrīgescō
• refrīgēscō

Related words

• frīgus
• frīgidus

Usage notes

De Vaan records the related frīgeō, whose perfect is also ⟨frīxī⟩, from Livius Andronicus.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de