fumo

Forms

fūmō (present infinitive fūmāre, perfect active fūmāvī, supine fūmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from fūmus (“smoke”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces ⟨fūmus⟩ to Proto-Italic *fūmos and Proto-Indo-European *dhuh2-mó- (“smoke, fume”), cognate with Sanskrit धूम (dhūmá-, “smoke”), Ancient Greek θυμός (thūmós, “spirit”), Lithuanian dū́mai (“smoke”) and Old Church Slavonic дымъ (dymŭ, “smoke”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Persa has the little hearths already smoking in a hungry man's belly.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “to smoke, give off smoke”, as of Cicero's smoking house and of altars, and as a sign of something alight or burning out.^[2][5] Of liquids and moist things it is “to steam”, as freshly dug earth in Cicero, a hot cake in Horace and the sweating necks of Virgil's horses.^[2] Lucretius uses it of mountain peaks clouded as if with smoke.^[2]

In New Latin it also means to smoke a cigarette or pipe.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of smoking hearths.^[2][4][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of peaks clouded with mist.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a smoking house and steaming earth.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of steaming horses.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smoke, give off smoke.^[2][5][1]
2. To steam, fume.^[2][5][1]
3. To be clouded as with smoke.^[2]
4. (New Latin) To smoke tobacco.^[1]

Word family

• fumator
• fumesco
• fūmidus
• infūmō
• semifumans
• suffūmō
• transfūmō

Related words

• fūmus
• English fume

References

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