inaresco

Forms

inārēscō (present infinitive inārēscere, perfect active ināruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + ārēscō (“to become dry”),^[2][3][1] the inchoative of āreō (“to be dry”).^[1] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *ās-ē- (“to be dry”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s-eh₁- (“to be dry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Varro's De re rustica, of figs that have dried: cum inaruerunt fici.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it of plasterwork drying,^[7][5] Celsus of medicines,^[7] and Columella of hay, of fruit that dries before it ripens and of plaster.^[7][3][5] Pliny the Elder has it of mud drying in the sun and of springs that dry up entirely in winter,^[6][5] and, with a dative, of something drying on another thing.^[6] Quintilian observes that nothing dries more quickly than tears: nihil facilius quam lacrimas inarescere.^[7]

Pliny the Younger uses it figuratively, of generosity that dries up through excessive lavishness.^[7][5][6] In Palladius it is used of olives spread out to dry in the sun.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of figs that have dried.^[3][8]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of plasterwork drying.^[7][8]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of medicines.^[7][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of mud, springs and leaves.^[6][5][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian says that nothing dries faster than tears.^[7][8]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of olives drying in the sun.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become dry, dry up.^[2][7]
2. (with dative) To dry in or on something.^[2][6]
3. (figurative) To dry up, be exhausted.^[7][5]

Usage notes

The manuscripts often confuse it with the simple verb ārēscō and with marcēscō “wither”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de