oleo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɔ.ɫe.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔː.le.o]^[1]

Forms

oleō (present infinitive olēre, perfect active oluī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ode/o- (“to smell”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to smell”), the root of odor.^[2][1][3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ὄζω (ózō, “to smell”), Old Armenian հոտ (hot, “smell”) and Lithuanian úosti (“to smell, sniff”).^[2] The /d/ became /l/ before /ē/ but stayed before /ō/, and de Vaan thinks the third-conjugation olere is older than the second-conjugation form.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, who says that a woman smells best when she smells of nothing.^[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to give off a smell, with adverbs to smell good or bad and with an ablative or accusative to smell of something, as Cicero's wax that smells of saffron.^[3][5] Figuratively it meant to be redolent of, to betray, and of a person to give away one's presence by smell.^[3][6] Third-conjugation forms appear in Plautus, Afranius, Pomponius and Petronius.^[3] Döderlein distinguishes olēre, the smell a thing has, from olfaciō, the sensation of smelling it.^[7]

It survives in Spanish oler and Italian olire.^[1] English redolent and English olfactory come from its compounds.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a smell in a recipe.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of wax smelling of saffron.^[5][4]
• 1650s – English olfactory is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give off a smell; to smell (good, bad).^[3]
2. To smell of, be redolent of.^[3]
3. To betray one's presence by smell.^[3]

Word family

• aboleō
• adoleō
• inolens
• oboleō
• olax
• olentia
• olēscō
• olētum
• olfaciō
• olidus
• peroleō
• praeoleō

Related words

• olētō
• odōrō
• odor
• English redolent
• English olfactory

Usage notes

Lewis and Short list a second verb oleō “to grow”, found only in compounds such as adoleō and aboleō, which the TLL thinks was abstracted from abolēre.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften