meio

Forms

mēiō (present infinitive mēiere, perfect active mīxī or mēiī, supine mīctum); third conjugation^[1] The perfect is regularly mīxī in inscriptions and mīnxī in literary texts, and the supine is mictum or minctum.^[2] A first-conjugation meiāre appears in late veterinary writers and in an inscription.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *meiɣjō,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃meiǵʰ-(i)e- (“to urinate”).^[5][1] The nasal present mingō, which later became the usual form, goes back to *h₃mi-n-ǵʰ-;^[5] Walde and Hofmann took it for a secondary formation on the perfect ⟨mīnxī⟩, while the LIV regards it as old.^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit मेहति (mehati),^[1] Ancient Greek ὀμείχω (omeíkhō), Lithuanian mỹžti, Serbo-Croatian mìžati and Old English mīgan, all meaning “to urinate”.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first attestation is the orator Gaius Titius;^[5] in verse it appears in Catullus (97.8).^[6][4][7]

Semantic evolution

Persius has sacer est locus, extra meiite, “this is a sacred place: piss outside”,^[6][4] and a tomb inscription asks the passer-by not to (hospes, ad hunc tumulum ne meias).^[6][4] Juvenal uses it of an insult to a statue,^[6][4] and Martial jokingly of a cracked chamber pot.^[6][4] Catullus and Horace also use it obscenely for ejaculation.^[7][4] Petronius has the proverb caldum meiere et frigidum potare, “to piss hot and drink cold”, of spending more than one takes in.^[6][4]

The present mingō is doubtfully attested before the 4th century AD;^[2] Conte describes it as a late formation from the perfect.^[7] Late veterinary writers such as Pelagonius also inflect the verb in the first conjugation.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it.^[6][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it, once with a double sense.^[7][4][8]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of a sacred place.^[6][8]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses the proverb caldum meiere et frigidum potare.^[6][8]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a chamber pot.^[6][4][8]
• 360 AD – Pelagonius inflects it in the first conjugation.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To urinate.^[2][6]
2. (of a vessel) To leak.^[6][4]
3. (obscene) To ejaculate.^[7][4]

Word family

• immēiō
• permēiō
• commēiō
• circummingō
• commingō
• permingō
• micturiō
• mictus
• mīnctiō
• mictorius
• mictualis
• minctura

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i j k l m Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e 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 f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de