Etymologically
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intepesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɛˈpeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.teˈpɛs.ko][1]

Forms

intepēscō (present infinitive intepēscere, perfect active intepuī); third conjugation[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin intepeō (“to be lukewarm”) + -scō, an inchoative verb.[2] The verb intepeō is formed from in- and tepeō (“to be warm”),[4][1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tep-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *t(e)p-eh₁- (“to be warm”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records the sense of growing warm from Virgil and Ovid on.[4] In the Aeneid a sword-point grows warm: ut semel intepuit mucrō.[2]

Semantic evolution

The opposite sense, of something hot that cools to lukewarm, appears from Seneca and Scribonius Largus on:[4] Seneca writes of a spring that turned cool when it should have been hot,[2] and Columella uses it of the year.[3] Figuratively it is used of love warming a heart in Statius, and of passions that slacken, as cruelty that cools in Petronius.[2][3]

Ammianus spells it ⟨intepisc-⟩.[4]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a sword growing warm.[2][4][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of growing warm.[4][3][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of heat cooling down.[2][4][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of cruelty that abates.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To become warm, warm up;[2][4] (figurative) to glow (with love).[2][4]
  2. To become lukewarm, cool down.[2][3]
  3. (figurative, of passions) To become less intense, slacken.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de