Etymologically
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oleo

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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
  • 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