Etymologically
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mundo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmʊn.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmun.do][1]

Forms

mundō (present infinitive mundāre, perfect active mundāvī, supine mundātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mundus1 (“clean, neat”) + -ō.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in the Moretum, a poem of the second half of the 1st century BC, where a place is cleaned beforehand.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare: Columella tells the housekeeper to have the mangers cleaned,[4][6] and Pliny the Elder speaks of cleaning with soda.[6] It became frequent in the Bible and in Church writers, from Minucius Felix and Tertullian on.[3] The Vulgate uses it of ritual purification under the Law of Moses, as of the Levites,[6] and of cleansing from sin: ab occultīs meīs mundā mē, “cleanse me from my hidden faults”.[6] The leper healed by Jesus is told mundāre, “be made clean”, in the Gospels.[3] Jerome uses it of picking over vegetables,[4] and Augustine has the comparative of the participle, mundātior “cleaner”.[6]

It lives on in Italian mondare, French monder, Spanish mondar and Portuguese mondar.[3]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 1st century BC – The Moretum uses it of cleaning a place.[3][4][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of cleaning mangers.[4][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of cleaning with soda.[6][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it.[3][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of cleansing from sin.[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make clean or tidy, to clean.[2][6]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To cleanse ritually, purify.[6][7]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To cleanse from sin.[6][4]

Word family

  • commundō
  • ēmundō
  • immundabilis
  • mundātiō
  • mundator
  • mundatrix
  • permundō
  • praemundatus
  • remundō

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson