glisco

Forms

glīscō (present infinitive glīscere); third conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1] A deponent gliscor is also found.^[2] Manuscripts and late texts also spell it clisco and glesco.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown: de Vaan finds no certain cognates.^[4][2] Wiktionary reports two proposals, a root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to shine”), with gilvus (“pale yellow”), helvus (“yellowish”) and Ancient Greek χλιάω (khliáō, “to be warm”), or a root *gel- (“to form into a ball”), with glaeba (“clod”) and glomus (“ball of thread”).^[1] Lewis & Short, after Festus, thought it perhaps akin to crēscō (“to grow”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who in the Asinaria says “this fight is warming up nicely”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to swell, grow or spread, and Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[5][1] Accius uses it of numbers increasing, Lucretius of a fire kindling in the breast of the Phrygian Alexander, and Sallust of a wind rising.^[2][5] Of feelings and conditions it means to gain force, and Tacitus uses it of individuals growing in power once the state had grown great.^[2] Gellius has it of shellfish that swell as the moon waxes.^[2] In Church Latin it is glossed to blaze up, rage, swell.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a fight warming up.^[2][4][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of enemies increasing in number.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a fire kindling.^[5][7]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of a wind rising.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of individuals growing in power.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become distended, swell, fill out.^[2][1]
2. To increase in number.^[2]
3. Of physical forces, to increase in power or violence; to blaze up, spread.^[2][5][1]
4. Of feelings or conditions, to grow in force.^[2]
5. To grow in power or importance.^[2]
6. To increase in fervour, be elated, glow.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de