maturesco

Forms

mātūrēscō (present infinitive mātūrēscere, perfect active mātūruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mātūrus (“ripe”) + -ēscō, an inchoative verb.^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan traces mātūrus to a noun Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu- (“ripeness”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro, Cicero and Caesar on;^[6] Varro uses it of eggs that mature unevenly.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense was “to become ripe”, of fruit and crops, as in Caesar's account of corn beginning to ripen, and Pliny the Elder uses it of honey maturing.^[2][7][8] Celsus applies it to boils and tumours coming to a head.^[2][7] Of living things it meant to reach full development: Cicero writes that offspring mature in nine months, and Ovid uses it of a girl reaching marriageable age.^[3][7][9] Figuratively it was said of matters in hand, of virtue and of books ripe for publication, in Cicero's letters, Livy, Quintilian and Pliny the Younger.^[2][7][8]

Ecclesiastical writers used it for ripening and coming to maturity.^[10] Among its descendants the TLL lists a Friulian form and Portuguese amadurecer.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of eggs maturing.^[2][11]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of offspring and, in his letters, of a matter in hand.^[2][3][11]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of corn beginning to ripen.^[2][11]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of tumours coming to a head.^[2][11]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a girl of marriageable age.^[7][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become ripe, ripen (of fruit and crops); of products, to mature.^[2][3]
2. Of boils or tumours, to come to a head.^[2][7]
3. To reach full development, mature (of living beings and of abstract things); of a girl, to become marriageable.^[2][7][9]

Word family

• commātūrescō
• ēmātūrēscō
• permātūrescō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de