nuto

Forms

nūtō (present infinitive nūtāre, perfect active nūtāvī, supine nūtātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a frequentative verb in ⟨-tō⟩ to the simple verb ⟨*nuō⟩ “to nod”, which survives only in compounds such as abnuō and annuō.^[2][3][4] That verb goes back to Proto-Italic *nowō and Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to nod”).^[4][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek νεύω (neúō, “to nod, beckon”).^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Asinaria forbids a woman to nod, wink or make signs to any man.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to nod the head, as a sign of assent or command, and then to sink or bend, as branches under a weight in Ovid, or to sway, as Ennius' pines nodding their heads.^[2][3] It is used of things that rock or totter as if about to fall, as Virgil's ash tree, and of what falters or gives way.^[2] Figuratively it is to waver or be undecided, as Cicero's Epicurus on the nature of the gods;^[2][3] Tacitus uses it of a man wavering in allegiance between Vitellius and Vespasian.^[2][3] Döderlein says that it describes tottering with reference to the head, while labō is used of the whole body, titubō of the feet and vacillō of the upper body.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “nod, command by sign; totter, be unstable, be unsettled”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of nodding as a signal.^[2][4][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of nodding pines.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of wavering in opinion.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of wavering in allegiance.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To nod the head, as a signal; to command by a nod.^[2][3][1]
2. To bend, sink, droop; to sway to and fro.^[2][3][1]
3. To totter, falter.^[2][1]
4. To waver, hesitate; of a situation, to remain in doubt.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• abnūtō
• adnūtō
• nūtābilis
• nūtābundus
• nūtāmen
• nūtātiō
• renūtō

Related words

• nūtus
• nūmen
• annuō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de