Etymologically
Log in

intabesco

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 23:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.taːˈbeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.taˈbɛs.ko][1]

Forms

intābēscō (present infinitive intābēscere, perfect active intābuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + tābēscō (“to melt, waste away”).[2][3][4] De Vaan derives the simple verb from tābeō, from Proto-Italic *tāf-ē- (“to be melting”) and Proto-Indo-European *teh₂-bʰ-eh₁- (“to be melting”); the sense “melt away” developed into “waste away”, the basis of all later Latin uses.[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek τήκω (tḗkō, “to melt”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horace is its first author: in the Epodes eyes fixed on food waste away, intābuissent pūpulae.[3][6] An older reading of it in Cicero's De natura deorum was an error for the simple verb.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

It meant to melt or dissolve: Ovid uses it of wax melting in a gentle fire and of a lead sling bullet melting in mid-air.[7][6] Of living beings it meant to waste away or pine: in Ovid Envy wastes away at the sight of men's success, Persius wishes that some may see virtue and pine at having left it, and Seneca uses it with a dative, to waste away with grief.[2][6][8] Columella has a vine that withers past all recovery, and Quintilian an orator wearing himself out weighing his words.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of eyes wasting away.[3][9]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of melting wax and of Envy wasting away.[7][2][9]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of wasting away with grief.[2][9]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a withering vine.[2][9]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of pining with regret.[2][9]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of an orator wearing himself out.[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To melt, dissolve away.[2][10][8]
  2. To waste away, pine (with grief, envy or illness); of plants, to wither.[2][7][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.