Etymologically
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nutrico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [nuːˈtriː.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [nuˈtriː.ko][1]

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
  • 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