onero

Forms

onerō (present infinitive onerāre, perfect active onerāvī, supine onerātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin onus (“load, burden”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *ones- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃en-os (“load”), cognate with Sanskrit अनस् (ánas-, “heavy cart”) and perhaps Hittite anii̯e/a- (“to work, carry out”).^[4] Servius explains that ⟨onustus⟩ has no ⟨h⟩ because it comes from ⟨onus⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, prologue to the Menaechmi: onerāvit nāvim magnam multīs mercibus, “he loaded a big ship with many goods”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Onerō is to load a ship or animal with freight, to load a person (Virgil's hands loaded with darts), and to heap things up with heavy objects (Lucretius: temples heaped with corpses).^[2] From this come weighing down and overloading (Livy: lest heavy baggage burden the column), overwhelming in battle, and filling with food and drink (Sallust: vīnō et epulīs onerātī).^[2] Plautus already uses it for loading someone with joy or with abuse; figuratively it is to burden with tasks, debts or legal liabilities, and to make something more burdensome, aggravate.^[2][1] Poets also use it for covering.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “burden, load down, overwhelm, oppress”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of loading a ship and of showering with joy or abuse.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of men loaded with wine and food.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a column burdened by baggage.^[2][6]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius of legal liabilities.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To load, lade, freight; to heap with.^[2][1][5]
2. To weigh down, overload; to overwhelm.^[2][1][5]
3. To fill (with food and drink).^[2]
4. To load (with joy, abuse); to burden (with tasks, debts).^[2][1]
5. To make heavier, aggravate.^[1]
6. (poetic) To cover.^[1]

Word family

• deonerō
• exonerō
• onerātus

Related words

• onerārius
• onerōsus
• onus
• onustus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 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