infodio

Forms

īnfodiō (present infinitive īnfodere, perfect active īnfōdī, supine īnfossum); third (-iō variant) conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, into”) + fodiō (“to dig”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces fodiō to Proto-Italic *foþ-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bhodh-i- (“to poke, dig”);^[4] the verb is cognate with Hittite padda-i (“to dig”) and Lithuanian bèsti (“to stick, drive in, dig”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Cato's book on farming, of cut vine prunings to be buried on the spot: sarmenta … concidito minute et ibidem … infodito.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to put in the earth, to bury or inter.^[2] Caesar uses it of stakes sunk into the ground,^[6][5] Varro of religious objects buried after Numa's death,^[7] and Virgil of seed and of the bodies of the dead: corpora multa virum terrae infodiunt, “they bury many bodies of men in the earth”.^[5][6] The TLL finds it from Cato on, and in poetry from Virgil on.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of jewels made to sink into the body through pierced ears,^[2] and Silius Italicus and Statius of things driven deep into the body.^[7][5] It also means to produce a hole by digging or to dig a site, in Columella and Grattius.^[2][7] The Vulgate and Augustine use it of burying things and money.^[7] French enfouir continues it.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of burying vine prunings.^[2][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of stakes sunk in the ground.^[6][5][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of burying the dead.^[5][3][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of digging a hole.^[7][5][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of jewels sunk into the body.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put in the earth, bury, inter.^[2][6][1]
2. To cause (a weapon or the like) to sink in.^[2][7]
3. To produce (a hole) by digging; to excavate.^[2][7]

Word family

• infossio

Related words

• fodiō
• effodiō
• dēfodiō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de