Etymologically
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imbuo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪm.bu.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈim.bu.o][1]

Forms

imbuō (present infinitive imbuere, perfect active imbuī, supine imbūtum); third conjugation[1] It is sometimes spelled inbuō, as if formed with in-.[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain; the OLD calls it doubtful and the TLL unknown.[2][4] De Vaan and Wiktionary follow Weiss, who starts from the participle imbūtus, since most Old Latin forms are participles or passives: it would be Proto-Italic *enþūtos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-dʰh₁-u- (“in-placement”), built on *h₁en (“in”) and *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), first used of steeping things in a liquid or dye.[5][1] Lewis and Short connect it with bibō (“to drink”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author;[5] the OLD's earliest example of drenching is from Ennius' Annals.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to drench, wet or stain, and so to give a colour or flavour, as Lucretius' peacocks “steeped in smiling grace”, and to stain with blood, as Virgil's lamb that will often wet the altar.[2] Of abstract things it is to permeate or imbue, as Cicero's “no people is so wild that belief in gods has not filled its mind”.[2][3]

It is also to wet for the first time, as Catullus' boat that first dipped its oars in the sea, hence to inaugurate, and to give someone first instruction, as Varro's ears of a girl not to be imbued with words of love.[2][1] Church Latin glosses it “fill, nourish, instruct, initiate”.[6] English imbue comes from it, from the early 15th century.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[5][8]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of drenching.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of belief in gods.[2][8]
  • early 15th century – English imbue.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drench, wet, steep; to stain; to tinge.[2][3][1]
  2. To permeate, imbue (with); to fill.[2][1][6]
  3. To wet for the first time; to inaugurate.[2][1]
  4. To give first instruction (in); to introduce (to); to initiate.[2][1][6]

Word family

  • imbutamentum

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de