Etymologically
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ieiuno

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [jɛjˈjuː.noː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [jeˈjuː.no][1]

Forms

ieiūnō (present infinitive ieiūnāre, perfect active ieiūnāvī, supine ieiūnātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from iēiūnus “fasting, hungry” with the verb suffix -ō.[1][2][3] The Old Latin Bible spells it ⟨iai-⟩.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short call it late Latin, and Gaffiot cites Tertullian and Jerome.[2][4] Köbler dates Tertullian c. 160–220 AD.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to fast, abstain from food, as in Jerome's Abraham, “about to fast, served food to his guests”, and Tertullian's iēiūnāre ūnī arbusculae “to abstain from the fruit of one tree”.[2][4] The Old Latin Gospels use it, as in Matthew 4:2.[3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to fast, abstain.[6] It survives in French jeûner, Spanish ayunar and Portuguese jejuar.[1] Its compound Vulgar Latin *disieiūnāre “to break one's fast” gave Old French disner and English dinner about 1300, and French déjeuner.[7][1]

Timeline

  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of abstaining.[4][5]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of fasting.[2][5]
  • c. 1300 – English dinner is recorded, from *disieiūnāre.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fast, abstain from food.[2][4]

Word family

  • ieiūnātiō
  • iēiūnātor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com