incandesco

Forms

incandēscō (present infinitive incandēscere, perfect active incanduī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + candēscō (“to begin to glow”).^[2][3] De Vaan traces the root verb, candeō (“to shine, gleam”), back to Proto-Italic *kand-ē- (“to shine”), from a root seen in Proto-Indo-European *kn̥d-ro- (“shining”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus (64.13), where the waves turned white with foam under the oars.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides growing white,^[3] it meant becoming red-hot or glowing with heat, and more widely becoming very hot:^[2][3] Virgil uses it of a season blazing with the heat of autumn, and Ovid of a lead shot that glows as it flies and of an altar kindled by fire.^[5] In prose the TLL finds it from Scribonius Largus on.^[3] Figuratively, Symmachus writes that the ardour of his study was kindled.^[5]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of the sea turning white with foam.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a season blazing with heat.^[5][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a lead shot glowing as it flies.^[5][6]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses it figuratively of zeal kindled.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become white, to whiten.^[3]
2. To become red-hot, glow with heat; to become very hot.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To be kindled, grow strong.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de