insusurro

Forms

īnsusurrō (present infinitive īnsusurrāre, perfect active īnsusurrāvī, supine īnsusurrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + susurrō (“to whisper”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists the simple verb, from Terence on, as a derivative of susurrus (“whisper, soft rustling”), which he takes to be onomatopoeic, imitating whispering with reduplication, a hissing sibilant and ⟨rr⟩; the noun may still be built on Proto-Indo-European *suer- (“to resound”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero on: in the Verrines he speaks of something being whispered in someone's ear, in aurem … īnsusurrātum.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Intransitively it means to whisper, usually into someone's ear, as in Cicero and in Suetonius' account of Caligula talking in secret with the Capitoline Jupiter.^[2][3] Transitively it means to say something in a whisper: Cicero writes that Epicharmus keeps whispering his maxim to him,^[2][6] and Seneca speaks of vows whispered to the gods.^[6] It also came to mean to suggest or hint: Cicero says that the west wind itself whispers that it is time to sail.^[6][5]

Christian writers such as Tertullian, Ambrose and Augustine continue to use it.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of whispering in someone's ear.^[3][2][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of vows whispered to the gods.^[6][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of Caligula whispering with the Capitoline Jupiter.^[2][3][7]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To whisper, especially into someone's ear.^[2][6]
2. (transitive) To say in a whisper.^[2][6]
3. To suggest, hint, insinuate.^[6][5]

Word family

• insusurratio

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de