Etymologically
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induro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪnˈduː.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈduː.ro][1]

Forms

indūrō (present infinitive indūrāre, perfect active indūrāvī, supine indūrātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is a verb from Latin in- + dūrus (“hard”) + -ō.[2] De Vaan traces dūrus to Proto-Italic *dūro- and Proto-Indo-European *duh₂-ro- (“far, long”), comparing Sanskrit दूर (dūrá-, “far, distant”) and Ancient Greek δηρός (dērós, “long”); the sense "hard" must have grown from "lasting".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citations are Ovid's, of a face hardened with horn in the Metamorphoses, and of the north wind hardening the snow.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.[4] It means to make hard: Pliny the Elder has boars hardening their sides by rubbing against trees.[4] It also means to toughen in body or character, as Celsus' young men once age has hardened them,[2] and to make a person stubborn or a vice inveterate: Seneca urges a friend to steel himself against such things.[2][4] Vultum indūrāre is to set one's face: Tacitus describes the crowd's cries as Otho changed or hardened his expression.[2] Etymonline says that in Late Latin it meant to harden the heart against, the source of Old French endurer and English endure.[5] Stelten gives "dry up, harden" for Church Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a face hardened with horn.[2]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of young men toughened by age.[2]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of steeling oneself.[2]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of Otho hardening his face.[2]
  • late 14th century – English endure, through Old French.[5]
  • 1590s – indurate appears in English.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make hard, harden;[2][4][1] (intransitive) to become hard.[2][4][1]
  2. To make robust, toughen (in body or character).[2][4]
  3. To make stubborn or inflexible; to make (a vice) inveterate;[2] vultum indūrāre, to set one's face.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson