obstupefacio

Forms

obstupefaciō (present infinitive obstupefacere, perfect active obstupefēcī, supine obstupefactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, suppletive^[1] The passive is obstupefīō, obstupefierī.^[2][3] Terence scans it obstupēfecit.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + stupefaciō (“to stun, stupefy”).^[2][4] That verb is formed from stupeō (“to be stunned”) and faciō (“to make”).^[1] De Vaan traces the base to Proto-Italic *stup-ē- (“to be stunned”) and Proto-Indo-European *stup-eh₁- (“to hit, push”), a meaning that explains the stative sense of the verb; he compares Ancient Greek τύπτω (túptō, “to hit, strike”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Terence's Phormio, of a man who could not utter what he had planned: ita eum tum timidum ibi obstupefecit pudor, “so did shame strike him dumb, timid as he was”.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It means to strike someone dumb with a strong emotion, to stun or astound: Cicero uses it of people stunned by admiration, Livy of an enemy stunned by the sheer daring of a deed,^[2][6] and of fear paralysing grief.^[2][3] Cicero also uses it of the part of the soul dulled by too much food and drink,^[2] and Valerius Maximus of nerves and limbs numbed by cold.^[2][8] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means “to astonish, amaze”.^[9] One manuscript of Jerome's translation of Job spells it obstubef-.^[4]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of shame striking a man dumb.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of people stunned by admiration and of a mind dulled by food and drink.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of an enemy astounded by daring.^[2][6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strike dumb with a strong emotion; to stun, astound.^[2][3]
2. To paralyse an emotion.^[2]
3. To stupefy with drink or food; to make numb.^[2][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson