Etymologically
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intumesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tʊˈmeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.tuˈmɛs.ko][1]

Forms

intumēscō (present infinitive intumēscere, perfect active intumuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + tumēscō (“to begin to swell”).[2][1] The TLL derives it from in- and tumeō (“to swell”),[3] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tum-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *tum-eh₁- (“to be swelling”), comparing Middle Welsh tyfu (“to grow”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Horace has a land where the ground does not swell up with vipers.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to swell up or rise, and Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan prose.[6][2] Ovid uses it of a belly swollen with dropsy, and the elder Seneca of a sea made rough by sudden storms.[2] Columella has a site where the ground rises a little.[2] Of sound it is to grow fuller: Tacitus has a voice that swells with the echo.[2] Figuratively it is to swell with pride, as the crowd of sisters in Ovid, and of emotions to increase: Persius has bile swelling in a hot breast.[2] Some manuscripts of Pliny the Elder, Jerome and the Vulgate spell it with ⟨-isc-⟩.[3] Church Latin glosses it to swell up.[7]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace of ground swelling with vipers.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a dropsical belly and of swelling pride.[2][5]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius of swelling bile.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of a voice swelling with the echo.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To swell up, become swollen, rise; of the sea, to grow rough.[2][6][1][7]
  2. Of ground, to rise.[2]
  3. Of sound, to grow fuller.[2]
  4. To be puffed up with pride or anger; of emotions, to increase.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson