odi

Forms

ōdī (present infinitive ōdisse, perfect active ōsus sum); fourth conjugation, no present stem, perfect active forms have present active meaning, deponent in the perfect^[1] Only the perfect system is classical, with present meaning;^[2][3] ōsus sum is used with the same force in Plautus and Gracchus, and Antony has odīvī.^[2][3] Later writers built present forms (odis, odiant, odiet), and Gracchus is said to have attested an old present odiō.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ōd- (“to hate”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃e-h₃od- (“to hate”), a reduplicated perfect of the root *h₃ed-.^[4][1] The perfect had a stative or resultative sense, “to be in a state of hatred”;^[4] LIV takes the root to have meant “to develop hatred against”, which de Vaan thinks possible but not necessary.^[4]

Cognate with Ancient Greek ὀδύσσασθαι (odússasthai, “to be angry”), Old Norse etja (“to incite”) and Old English atol (“terrible”).^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius.^[4] Plautus has inimīcōs semper ōsa sum obtuērier, “I have always hated to look at enemies”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ōdī is a perfect with present meaning, “to hate, have an aversion to, dislike”, of persons or things.^[2][3][1] With an infinitive it is “to hate to, be reluctant to” (Horace: a mind content with the present ōderit cūrāre, “will refuse to worry about what lies beyond”); Pliny the Elder says the balsam tree “hates” to be cut with iron.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “hate, detest”.^[5] From the same root come odium, hatred, and odiōsus, offensive, both from Plautus on.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[4][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: inimīcōs semper ōsa sum obtuērier.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace: ōderit cūrāre.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has the new perfect odīvī.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hate, detest, dislike.^[2][3][1][5]
2. To hate to, be reluctant to (with an infinitive).^[2][1]

Word family

• exōsus
• odium
• ōdibilis
• ōsor
• perōdī
• ōsus

Related words

• odiō
• odiōsē
• odiōsus
• perōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de