humilio

Forms

humiliō (present infinitive humiliāre, perfect active humiliāvī, supine humiliātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin humilis (“low, humble”) + -ō.^[2][1][3] The TLL thinks the less often transmitted form ⟨humilo⟩ is the better one, formed like levō¹ and contristō, and suggests that ⟨humilio⟩ may have been formed from the comparative, as ampliō was.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short mark it Late Latin;^[3][4] Tertullian speaks of the body that is humbled in suffering, and of the publican humble and downcast in face (vultū humiliātus atque dēiectus).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It occurs in the Old Latin Bible,^[5] and Jerome writes that we humble ourselves here in vain if we would be greater there.^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for to humiliate, humble, bring low and level to the ground.^[6] In Medieval Latin it also meant to lower or bow down, to lay on the ground in the liturgical rite of imprecation, and in music to lower the pitch of a note.^[7] English formed humiliate in the 1530s from the Late Latin participle or as a back-formation from humiliation.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of humbling the body and of a downcast face.^[3][5][4]
• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible has it in Jeremiah.^[5][4]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in his work against Jovinian.^[3][4]
• 1530s – English forms humiliate from the Late Latin participle.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Late Latin) To humble, abase, bring low.^[3][9][6]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To humiliate; to level to the ground.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) To lower, bow down; to lay on the ground (in the liturgy).^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin, music) To lower the pitch of a note.^[7]

Word family

• humiliātiō

Related words

• English humiliate

Usage notes

The TLL also records a deponent use and treats the variant ⟨humilo⟩ under the same head.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn