Etymologically
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induresco

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Forms

indūrēscō (present infinitive indūrēscere, perfect active indūruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary analyses it as from Latin in- + dūrēscō (“to harden”);[1][2] the OLD as a formation from in-, dūrus (“hard”) and the inchoative suffix -ēscō.[3] De Vaan derives the adjective from Proto-Italic *dūro-.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Virgil, who in the Georgics writes of an icicle hardening in a beard, stīria indūruit horrida barbīs.[3]

Semantic evolution

Of things it means to become hard or to set: Ovid of a twig turned hard at the touch of a head, Celsus of a drop and Columella of a field.[3] Ovid uses it of his own body grown tough through hardship, and Columella of a calf grown strong.[3]

Figuratively it means to become fixed: Seneca and Quintilian use it of faults becoming set before they can be corrected, and Tacitus says that the common soldiers had become hardened in their loyalty to Vitellius, indūruerat prō Vitelliō.[3][5] Lewis and Short call it a post-Augustan word.[5] The TLL lists Spanish endurecer as its descendant.[2]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of an icicle forming.[3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a body grown tough.[3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a fault becoming fixed.[3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of soldiers set in their loyalty.[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To become hard, harden, set.[3][5]
  2. Of a person or body, to become tough or robust.[3]
  3. (figurative) Of habits, to become firmly established; of a person, to become set in one's ways.[3]
  4. (figurative) To become inflexible in an attitude or purpose.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ 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
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press