nutrico

Forms

nūtrīcō (present infinitive nūtrīcāre, perfect active nūtrīcāvī, supine nūtrīcātum); first conjugation^[1] A deponent nūtrīcor, nūtrīcārī, nūtrīcātus sum is also used.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin nūtrīx (“wet nurse”) + -ō, a verb formed from the noun.^[2][1][5] It sits beside nūtriō (“to suckle, nourish”), from which nūtrīx itself is formed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus, of bringing up children in the Mercator^[3][6][7] and, in the Miles gloriosus, of people who vie in looking after the speaker while they gape at his property: “bona mea inhiant, me certatim nutricant et munerant” (“they gape at my goods, and compete to pamper me and give me presents”).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Republican Latin it was used of suckling and feeding animals, of plants that the sun makes grow,^[2][3] and in the deponent form nūtrīcor of the world, which Cicero says nourishes and holds together all things.^[2][3] Döderlein distinguishes it from nūtrīre: the latter is the general word, while nūtrīcāre is applied more particularly to animals.^[8] Petronius has the proverb of nursing a viper under one's arm, said of cherishing someone who will do harm.^[4][6][3]

Its descendants include nutricare in Italian and nutrica in Romanian.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of rearing children and of pampering a person.^[2][3][9]
• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius has nutricatur oliva, of an olive tree being nourished.^[3][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of sows suckling piglets and of gardens nourished by the sun.^[2][3][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the deponent of the world nourishing all things.^[2][9]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the proverb viperam sub ala nutricas.^[4][6][9]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius writes that poverty reared a man from the cradle.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suckle, nurse.^[2][3]
2. To nourish, make (animals or plants) grow; of the world, to sustain all things.^[2][3]
3. To bring up, rear (persons).^[2][7]
4. To look after, cherish (a person).^[2][3]

Word family

• nūtrīcātiō
• nūtrīcātus

Related words

• nūtrīciō
• nūtrīcium
• nūtrīcius
• nūtrīcula
• nūtrīmen
• nūtrīmentālis
• nūtrīmentum
• nūtrītius
• nūtrītor
• nūtrītōrius

Usage notes

Viperam sub ala nutricas (“you are nursing a viper under your arm”), in Petronius, is the Latin form of the proverb about nursing a viper in one's bosom.^[4][6] A fragment of Suetonius contrasts the two verbs: nutrit mulier, nutricat masculus.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de