Etymologically
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illino

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪl.lɪ.noː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈil.li.no][1]

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

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