madesco

Pronunciation

• Classical: [maˈdeːs.koː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [maˈdɛs.ko]^[1]

Forms

madēscō (present infinitive madēscere, perfect active maduī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin madeō (“to be wet”) + -scō (“(inchoative suffix)”), “to become wet”.^[2][1][3] The verb madeō goes back to Proto-Italic *mad-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *mh₂d-eh₁- (“to be wet”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Virgil,^[5] who writes sēmusta madēscunt rōbora, “the half-burnt timbers are drenched”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

L&S notes that it is poetic and post-Augustan.^[6] Ovid has the earth growing wet with rain, Statius cheeks wet with tears, and Celsus uses it of the temples growing moist with sweat.^[2][6][7] Poets speak of hands that grew wet with blood, meaning that they had killed.^[6] Columella and Pliny use it for food becoming soft by soaking or boiling, and Columella of a cucumber ripening.^[2][6][7]

Fronto uses it for getting drunk, of Chrysippus, who was said to do so every day.^[2][6] The Ecclesiastical sense is “become wet”.^[8]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of drenched timbers.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of the earth wet with rain.^[6][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of sweating.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for softening and ripening.^[2][5]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it for getting drunk.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become wet or moist, be drenched.^[2][6]
2. To become wet with tears or with sweat.^[2][7]
3. To become soft by soaking or boiling; to ripen.^[2][6]
4. To get drunk.^[2][6]

Word family

• demadēscō
• dīmadescō
• ēmadescō
• immadēscō
• permadescō

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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson