intremo

Forms

intremō (present infinitive intremere, perfect active intremuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] The TLL files its perfect forms under intremēscō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + tremō (“to tremble”).^[3][2][1] De Vaan traces tremō to Proto-Italic *trem-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tr(e)m- (“to tremble”).^[4] Cognate with Umbrian tremitu and Ancient Greek τρέμω (trémō, “to tremble”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in poets from Virgil on,^[2] who writes that whenever Enceladus turns his side, all Trinacria trembles with a rumbling: intremere omnem murmure Trinacriam.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to tremble or quake: in Virgil a mast and the waves, in Ovid the earth, an oak, and knees that suddenly shook with fear.^[5][3] In prose it appears from Celsus on, who writes that the whole body trembles.^[2][5] Petronius uses it of trumpets that sound with a quavering note.^[3] Silius Italicus gives it an object, “to tremble at”: the fates of kings, or Hannibal.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, “tremble, quake”.^[2][5][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of knees shaking with fear.^[3][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, the first prose author to use it.^[2][6]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus, “tremble at”.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tremble, quake, shake; of a trumpet, to make a vibrating sound.^[3][5][1]
2. (with accusative or dative) To tremble at.^[3][5][1]

Word family

• intremescō

Related words

• tremō
• tremor
• contremō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de