interluo

Forms

interluō (present infinitive interluere, perfect active interluī); third conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- + lavō (“to wash”).^[1][3] In compounds this verb takes the form ⟨-luō⟩, as in abluō and dīluō.^[4] De Vaan traces lavō to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh₃- (“to wash”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has it in a fragment.^[1][2] Cato uses it in a ritual: manūs interluitō, posteā vīnum sūmitō, “wash your hands in between, then take the wine”.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

From washing in the middle of an act, it came to be used of water that flows between two lands and washes both.^[6][2] Virgil uses it of the sea that splits the Italian coast from the Sicilian and flows between their fields and cities, and of the river Allia.^[1][6] Tacitus uses it of the strait between Capri and Surrentum, and Seneca of every sea that flows between lands.^[1]

Later the passive appears: Solinus says that a city is flowed through by the Euphrates.^[6][2] Manuscripts often confuse it with interfluō.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a fragment.^[1][4][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of washing the hands during a sacrifice.^[1][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the sea between Italy and Sicily.^[1][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the strait between Capri and Surrentum.^[1][7]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus uses it in the passive of a city crossed by the Euphrates.^[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wash (the hands) in the course of a rite.^[1][6]
2. (of straits and rivers) To flow between, wash (lands).^[1][6][5]

Word family

• interluviēs

Related words

• lavō
• interfluō

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de