obmutesco

Forms

obmūtēscō (present infinitive obmūtēscere, perfect active obmūtuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It is often spelled omm-, with the prefix assimilated.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + mūtus (“dumb”) + -ēscō, formed like obstupēscō and obticēscō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces mūtus to Proto-Italic *mūto- and Proto-Indo-European *mū̆-to-, literally one who can say nothing but “mu”.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit मूक (mū́ka-, “dumb”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is Terence's Andria, where the speaker says he was dumbstruck: obstipui... obmutui.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to become unable to speak, to become dumb, as in Cicero, who says the tongue of a new pontiff failed him,^[2] and to become or remain silent or speechless.^[2] Celsus and Pliny the Elder use it of losing the voice through drunkenness or illness, and Pliny of dogs losing their bark.^[6] Cornelius Severus uses it of a voice silenced by death, and Cicero, of an abstract subject, of studies that were suddenly silenced.^[2] In Church Latin it is to be dumb, mute or silent.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence, of being struck dumb.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a tongue that failed and of silenced studies.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of losing one's speech.^[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become dumb, lose one's speech.^[2][6][1]
2. To become or remain silent or speechless.^[2][1]
3. Of abstract things: to be silenced or suppressed.^[2]

Related words

• mūtēscō
• mūtus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson