ignio

Forms

igniō (present infinitive ignīre, perfect active ignīvī or igniī, supine ignītum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ignis (“fire”) + -iō.^[1][2][3] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *n̥gʷni- (“fire”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥gʷ-ni- (“(a) fire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a post-Classical word;^[5] the TLL and Georges first cite Cyprian, who uses it of heating frying pans until they glow.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant to make hot or red-hot and to set on fire;^[3][5] Prudentius, Augustine and Calcidius use it,^[3][5] and the participle ignītus became an adjective, “fiery, glowing”.^[5] A scholiast on Statius remarks that the verb renders a Greek word for “to burn”.^[2]

Medieval writers kept the general sense of heating or kindling and added technical ones: to forge in the fire, to harden or bake by fire, to make fireproof, to purify by fire, and in medicine to cauterize.^[6]

Timeline

• 3rd century AD – Cyprian uses it of heating pans until they are red-hot.^[2][3][7]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius has it in the Peristephanon.^[5][3][7]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in his letters and his commentary on the Psalms.^[3][7]
• 2nd half of the 12th century – Hildegard of Bingen uses it of heat in herbs and soil.^[6][7]
• 1660s – English forms ignite from its participle ignītus.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make red-hot, heat until glowing.^[5][3][2]
2. To ignite, set on fire.^[5][3][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) To forge in the fire; to harden or bake by fire.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin, medicine) To cauterize.^[6]

Word family

• ignēscō
• ignītābulum

Related words

• ignis
• English ignite

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ 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 f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com