Etymologically
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obesus

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Forms

obēsus (feminine obēsa, neuter obēsum, superlative obēsissimus); first and second declension[1] It is also spelled obessus, which the manuscripts often have.[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin obedō (“to eat away”), being the participle of that verb, a compound of ob- and edō1 (“to eat”).[1][3][2] The OLD marks the verb as unattested, while Lewis and Short give it an entry of its own.[1][3] The TLL compares ambēsus (“eaten round”).[2] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the verb “to eat”, which he traces to Proto-Italic *ed- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”).[4] Etymonline explains it as “that has eaten itself fat”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Laevius, quoted by Gellius:[4][6] the line corpore pectoreque undique obeso uses it, Gellius remarks, for lean and slender, in its strict rather than its usual sense;[1][5] Etymonline notes that it could also be read in a passive sense, “wasted”.[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In ordinary use it means fat, stout, plump: Catullus has an obesus Etruscus, Horace a fat thrush, and Celsus contrasts the thin with the fat.[1] Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of animals and of the belly, Apuleius of a body filled out with fat, and Pliny also as a noun for fat people.[1] The Aetna uses it of soil enriched with bitumen.[1] Figuratively it means dull, coarse: Horace speaks of a dull nose, and Calpurnius of songs fit for coarse ears.[1] The grammarian Terentianus Maurus uses it of the thick sound of consonantal ⟨u⟩.[1] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means fat, stout, obese.[7] English formed obese in the 1650s, partly from this word and partly from obesity, which it had taken in the 1610s.[5]

Timeline

  • 2nd/1st century BC – Laevius uses it in the sense lean, thin.[1][4][6]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a fat Etruscan.[1][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a fat thrush and of a dull nose.[1][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius discusses Laevius' use of the word.[1][6]
  • 1650s – English forms obese from it, partly as a back-formation from obesity.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Fat, stout, plump; of soil, fattened, enriched.[1][7]
  2. Dull, insensitive, coarse.[1]
  3. Wasted, lean, thin.[1][5]

Word family

  • obēsitās
  • English obese

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts it with corpulentus: obēsus denotes fatness on its bad side, with the unwieldiness that goes with it, and is opposed to gracilis.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c 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 c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper