invetero

Forms

inveterō (present infinitive inveterāre, perfect active inveterāvī, supine inveterātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + vetus + -ō, from the adjective meaning “old”.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as in- with the verb veterō.^[1] De Vaan traces vetus to Proto-Indo-European *uet-os- (“year”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first found in Cicero, intransitively in De natura deorum: a false belief could not have lasted so long, nec una cum saeclis aetatibusque hominum inveterare potuisset (“nor grown old together with the ages and generations of men”).^[3][6] In the Tusculan Disputations he uses the participle of diseases that cannot be rooted out once they have become established.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to let something grow old or mature, and in the passive to grow old.^[2][7] Columella speaks of keeping rainwater until it has aged, and Pliny the Elder of storing garlic and onions.^[6][8] From this came the sense of letting a disease, habit or feeling take root, which survives in the participle inveterātus, “of long standing”.^[2][9] Curtius uses it for taking away the strangeness of something new, making it familiar.^[2][8]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it could also mean to grow old and feeble, and to abolish or put an end to something.^[10][4] English took over the participle as inveterate in the late 14th century.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the verb of beliefs growing old and of diseases taking root.^[3][2][11]
• 1st century AD – Columella writes of letting rainwater age.^[2][11]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of making something new familiar.^[2][11]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of storing garlic and onions.^[6][11]
• late 14th century – English borrows the participle as inveterate.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To let grow old, keep, preserve, let mature;^[2][6] (passive) to grow old or mature.^[2][6]
2. To allow to become established;^[2][12] (passive) to take root.^[2][12]
3. To take away the novelty of, make familiar or customary.^[2][4]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To grow old, become feeble; to abolish, put an end to.^[10]

Related words

• inveterāscō
• vetus
• English inveterate

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
12. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier