Etymologically
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innuo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪn.nu.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈin.nu.o][1]

Forms

innuō (present infinitive innuere, perfect active innuī, supine innūtum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“to, towards”) + *nuō (“to nod”).[1][2][3] De Vaan lists it with abnuō (“to refuse”) and adnuō (“to nod assent”) under ⟨-nuō⟩, which goes back to Proto-Italic *nowe/o- and Proto-Indo-European *neu-e/o- (“to nod”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek νεύω (neúō, “to nod, beckon”) and Old Irish ad·nói (“to entrust”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:[4][3] in the Rudens a speaker says ubi ego innuero vobis, “when I give you the nod”.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to give a nod or sign to someone, usually with the head, often with a dative of the person:[2][6] in Terence's Eunuchus a character answers that she gave nothing but a nod as she left, and Livy has a speaker ask why they should not simply answer the Romans that they will lay down their arms at a nod.[3][5] Pliny the Younger has a figure that stood and beckoned with its finger, like someone calling.[6][7] The TLL finds it in Plautus, Terence, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Ovid and Livy, but not in Cicero, Virgil or Horace, and notes that manuscripts often confuse it with ⟨adnuō⟩.[3]

The ancient grammarians distinguished it from its neighbours: for Nonius innuere is to signify with the face and adnuere to grant, and for Charisius one innuit with the head or the eyebrow, but adnuit to what has been said or done.[3] Donatus explains it as “to signify”,[6] and Gaffiot gives the transitive sense “to indicate” in Vitruvius.[8][7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to make a sign, signal, hint or intimate.[9] Its ablative gerund innuendo, “by hinting”, gave English innuendo.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of giving a signal with a nod.[3][11]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a nod given in leaving.[3][11]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the Romans' nod.[3][11]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it in his sixth satire.[6][11]
  • 1670s – English borrows innuendo, from its gerund.[10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To give a nod, make a sign (especially with the head), beckon (to someone).[2][6][8]
  2. To intimate, signify, indicate.[6][8][9]

Usage notes

Nonius reports that the ancients assigned nūtāre to the head, innuere to the nostrils or lips and nictāre to the eyes, and separates innuere from adnuō, to nod assent.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de