morsico

Forms

morsicō (present infinitive morsicāre, perfect active morsicāvī, supine morsicātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin mordeō + -icō, on the stem ⟨mors-⟩ of the participle;^[2][3] the TLL compares vellicō.^[3] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *mord-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂mord-(e)ie- (“to crush, bite”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apuleius, in the Metamorphoses, uses it of an ass that nibbles at people while pretending to kiss them.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a frequentative, “to bite again and again, lightly”.^[3][5] Festus, in Paulus' epitome, describes birds called dagnades that keep drinkers from sleeping by plucking and nibbling at them.^[3][6] Apuleius also uses it of eyes that open and shut quickly, a winking or ogling look,^[2][6] where some editors read morsitō.^[6][5] It survives in Italian morsicare.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of nibbling and of winking eyes.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To take little bites at, nibble.^[2][6]
2. (intransitive, of the eyes) To open and shut quickly, flicker, wink.^[2][6]

Word family

• commorsicō
• dēmorsicō
• morsicātim
• morsicātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de