lambo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɫam.boː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈlam.bo]^[1]

Forms

lambō (present infinitive lambere, perfect active lambī, supine lambitum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *lamb-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *lh₂-m-P- (“to lick”), a nasal present of a root that was probably onomatopoeic, since the labial consonant does not correspond regularly between the languages.^[2][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek λάπτω (láptō, “to lap”), Armenian լափել (lapʻel, “to lick”) and Old English lapian (“to lap up”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucilius, who has a boy who licked up cakes with his mouth.^[2][3] Köbler dates Lucilius c. 180–102 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to pass the tongue over, to lick, as Virgil's serpents licking their hissing mouths with quivering tongues, and to lick up or lap, as Cicero's dogs and the fish without teeth.^[3][6] By transfer fire licked or played upon a thing, a river washed its banks and ivy wreathed a tree, as Horace's Hydaspes that laps fabled lands.^[3][6]

Döderlein distinguishes lambere, licking as a way of touching, from lingere, licking for taste.^[7] It survives in Italian lambire “to lap, touch lightly”, Spanish lamer and Portuguese lamber.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius has a boy lick up cakes.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^[6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil's serpents lick their mouths.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lick.^[3]
2. To lick up, lap.^[3]
3. (of fire) To play upon, (of water) to wash, (of plants) to wreathe.^[3]

Word family

• allambo
• circumlambō
• dēlambō
• ēlambō
• lambiscō
• lambito
• lambitus
• praelambō
• praeterlambō
• relambō

Related words

• labium
• lingō
• English lap

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes lambere (to lick, using the tongue to touch) from lingere (to lick, to taste).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper