illino

Forms

illinō (present infinitive illinere, perfect active illēvī, supine illitum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled inl-.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + linō (“to smear”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan traces linō to Proto-Italic *lina- (“to smear”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂li-n-H-, a nasal present.^[5] He compares Old Irish lenaid (“to stay, glue, follow”), Welsh llynu (“to besmear”) and Ancient Greek ἀλίνειν (alínein, “to smear”), a word of Hesychius.^[5] He finds none of the explanations of the perfect ⟨lēvī⟩ convincing.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotation is from the comic poet Novius: a character says that he smears on chalk and white lead.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is used both of the substance put on and of the thing covered: to smear on, and to besmear, coat or anoint.^[2][3] Pliny the Elder writes of wasps that coat their nests, and Seneca contemptuously of clothes covered in purple and gold.^[2] Horace uses it of a poet who smears his verses on paper.^[2] Columella and Pliny the Elder also have fourth-conjugation forms such as ⟨illinire⟩.^[2][3] Church Latin glosses it to smear, bedaub, paint over.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Novius of smearing on chalk and white lead.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of verses smeared on paper.^[2][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella has the form illinire.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of wasps coating their nests.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smear on, spread on; contemptuously, to scribble.^[2][3][1]
2. To besmear, daub, anoint, coat with something.^[2][3][7]

Word family

• illinimentum
• illitus
• superillinō

Related words

• linō
• oblinō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson