mingo

Forms

mingō (present infinitive mingere, perfect active mīnxī, supine mīnctum or mīctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Scholars disagree on its age.^[2][3] If it is old, as the LIV holds, it is inherited from Proto-Italic *ming-e/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃mi-n-ǵʰ- (“to urinate”), a present with a nasal infix beside meiō, which continues *h₃meiǵʰ-(i)e-.^[2] Walde and Hofmann, followed by others, regard it as a secondary present made from the perfect ⟨mīnxī⟩;^[2] the OLD and the TLL describe how ⟨mīnxī⟩, then ⟨mīnctum⟩ and the present, were added to the forms of that verb on the pattern of ⟨pīnxī⟩ beside ⟨pictum⟩.^[4][3]

Cognate with Sanskrit मेहति (mehati), Ancient Greek ὀμείχω (omeíkhō), Lithuanian mỹžti, Latvian mìzt and Old English mīgan, all meaning “to urinate”.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The supine mīnctum is read only in a fragment of the orator Gaius Titius,^[3] quoted by Macrobius: ipsus it mīnctum, “he goes off to make water himself”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OLD treats it under meiō and notes that the perfect is regularly mīxī in inscriptions but mīnxī in literature.^[4] Forms of the present stem are transmitted in earlier authors, such as Celsus' passive ūrīna mingitur, but the TLL finds them securely attested only from Vopiscus on, and the OLD calls the present doubtful before the 4th century AD.^[3][4][6] Horace, Martial and Juvenal also have the verb,^[6][5] and grammarians such as Eutyches give mingō as another name for meiō.^[3]

Later authors use the present freely: Ammianus writes of urinating standing up, and Vegetius uses it in veterinary medicine.^[5] Church Latin kept the meaning “urinate”.^[7]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the supine mictum.^[6][5][8]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus has the passive ūrīna mingitur, in a form the TLL doubts.^[6][3][8]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial has the perfect minxistī.^[5][8]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus writes of urinating standing up.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To urinate, make water.^[6][5][1]
2. (transitive) To pass (urine).^[6][5]

Related words

• meiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de