inardesco

Forms

inārdēscō (present infinitive inārdēscere, perfect active inārsī); third conjugation, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + ārdēscō (“to catch fire”), an inchoative verb.^[2][3][4] According to de Vaan the verb of burning, ārdeō, is derived from āridus (“dry”), which belongs to āreō (“to be dry”); he traces that verb to Proto-Italic *ās-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s-eh₁- (“to be dry”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Virgil and Curtius on,^[3] and the OLD quotes Horace's Epodes: no gift ever burned more fiercely on the shoulders of Hercules, the gift being Nessus' shirt.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^[4] It means to catch fire or burn,^[2][4] and to glow: Virgil has a dark cloud that glows in the rays of the sun, and Pliny the Elder shrubs that glow in the fire like iron.^[2][4] Seneca uses it of cheeks that flush.^[4]

Of people and their passions it means to be roused or inflamed: in Ovid a gentle love blazes up at the sight of a young man, Quintilian says that every feeling flags unless voice and face kindle it, and Tacitus speaks of burning with desire for revenge.^[2][4][6] Christian writers such as Ambrose use it of the flame of lust.^[3] It survives in Spanish enardecer.^[1]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a gift burning on the shoulders of Hercules.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a cloud glowing in the sun.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of love kindling at a sight.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of dry timber catching fire.^[3][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of desire for revenge.^[4][7]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose speaks of the flame of lust burning.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To catch fire, kindle, burn.^[2][4]
2. To glow, become incandescent.^[2][4]
3. Of people or passions: to be roused, burn, be inflamed.^[2][6]

Related words

• Spanish enardecer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de