hebeo

Forms

hebeō (present infinitive hebēre); second conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

The OLD forms it like hebes (“blunt”), with the stative suffix -eō.^[2] De Vaan finds it impossible to derive the verb from the adjective or the adjective from the verb, and posits a stem ⟨heb-⟩ “blunt” behind both; he gives no etymology.^[3] Wiktionary mentions proposals linking it to Ancient Greek κωφός (kōphós, “blunt, dull”) or deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰet-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Virgil and Livy on;^[4][3] in the Aeneid the blood grows sluggish with chilly old age.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense “to be blunt” is in Livy, where Hannibal, rebuking his soldiers, asks whether their iron is blunt.^[2][4] Most uses are figurative: to be dull, sluggish or inactive.^[5][2] It was said of light growing dim, as of the star of Venus in Lucan,^[2] and of feelings dying down, as in Manilius;^[2] Tacitus uses it of people.^[6] Lewis & Short note that it is perhaps not found before Augustus.^[5] Grammarians held that only the third person hebet was Latin and that the forms of the perfect belong to hebēscō,^[4] and manuscripts often confuse it with habeō.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the blood of old age.^[5][4][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of blunt iron.^[2][4][7]
• 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of feelings growing faint.^[2][7]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of a star growing dim.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be blunt.^[2][5]
2. Of light, to be or grow dim.^[2]
3. Of feelings, to grow faint, die down.^[2]
4. To be inactive or sluggish, dull.^[2][5]

Word family

• hebetēscō
• hebēscō

Related words

• hebes

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de