oblittero

Forms

oblitterō (present infinitive oblitterāre, perfect active oblitterāvī, supine oblitterātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled oblīterō.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[3][4][1] Lewis & Short derive it from oblinō (“to smear over”),^[3] and Wiktionary from its participle ⟨oblitus⟩, influenced by littera (“letter”);^[1] Etymonline takes it directly from ob- and the noun for “letter”.^[5] The TLL gives as possible sources a phrase ⟨ob litterās⟩ (after Walde and Hofmann) or the prefix with a verb *litterō (“to smear, write”).^[4] The OLD compares oblīvīscor (“to forget”), with which manuscripts confuse it.^[2][4] Festus reports that some ancient writers derived it from oblīviō (“forgetting”), others from lītus (“shore”), as marks on a beach are levelled by the waves.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Accius, Cicero, Catullus and Varro on.^[4][6] Accius has a hatred among the descendants of Pelops, its memory long blotted out, being renewed: inimicitias Pelopidarum... oblitteratas.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to cause to be forgotten, consign to oblivion:^[2] Livy speaks of blotting out the report or the memory of an event, Catullus of commands forgotten, and Suetonius of a matter buried in silence.^[3] Lewis & Short find it especially frequent in post-Augustan prose, above all in Tacitus, who uses it of sacred rites falling out of use.^[3] It also means to cause to fall into disuse, as a mine in Pliny the Elder,^[2] and to make disappear or efface, as the boundary marks of fields in Siculus Flaccus or a complexion faded by long study in Apuleius.^[2] The literal sense, to blot out or erase writing, is rare and post-Augustan;^[3] Tacitus has the records of the treasury erased.^[3]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, of a hatred long forgotten.^[3][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[4][3][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of blotting out the memory of an event.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of erased treasury records and rites falling out of use.^[3][6]
• c. 1600 – Its participle oblitterātus gives English obliterate.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause to be forgotten, consign to oblivion.^[2][3][1]
2. To cause to fall into disuse.^[2]
3. To cause to disappear, efface.^[2][1]
4. To blot out, erase, obliterate (writing).^[3][1]

Word family

• inoblīterātus
• oblitterātiō
• oblitterator
• oblītterus

Related words

• littera
• oblinō
• oblīvīscor
• English obliterate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b 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