Etymologically
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oblittero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔbˈlɪt.tɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [obˈlit.te.ro][1]

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

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