inumbro

Forms

inumbrō (present infinitive inumbrāre, perfect active inumbrāvī, supine inumbrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“on”) + umbrō (“to shade”),^[2][1] which the TLL derives from ⟨in⟩ and umbra (“shade, shadow”).^[3] De Vaan notes that umbra is generally connected with Lithuanian ùnksna (“shade”) and reconstructed as a form with /nksr/, a cluster found in no other word; he finds no root etymology for it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Lucretius,^[2][5] who describes men who hold their cups and shade their faces with garlands: inumbrant ora coronis.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[5] Lucretius also has the earth put in shadow, Virgil a couch shaded with a covering of leaves, and Pliny the Elder the forum shaded with awnings.^[5] Tacitus uses it of evening coming on, inumbrante vespera, and Apuleius and Claudian of covering.^[5] Varro has it, in an older technical sense, of marking out the shadows of a sundial.^[5] Figuratively it is to put in the shade: Pliny the Younger writes that the dignity of the legates is overshadowed by the coming of the commander.^[2][5] In the Digest the participle means apparent.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of shading faces with garlands.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of marking out a sundial.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a couch shaded with leaves.^[5][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of evening coming on.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cast a shadow on, shade; to darken; to cover.^[2][5][1]
2. To mark out the shadows of (a sundial).^[5]
3. (figurative) To overshadow, put in the shade, obscure.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• inumbratio

Related words

• umbra
• umbrāculum
• opācō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 f g h i j k l m 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