Etymologically
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perbibo

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Forms

perbibō (present infinitive perbibere, perfect active perbibī); third conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + bibō (“to drink”).[1][3] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *pibe/o- and Proto-Indo-European *pi-ph₃-e/o- (“to drink”); de Vaan explains its initial ⟨b-⟩ as assimilated to the ⟨-b-⟩ inside the word.[4] Cognate with Faliscan pafo (“I will drink”) and Sanskrit पिबति (píbati, “drinks”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,[1][5] in the exaggeration perii, quoi medullas lassitudo perbibit, “I'm done for, weariness has drunk up my marrow”.[1][6]

Semantic evolution

Cato uses it of things soaking up oil lees in the sun,[1][6] Ovid of the earth drinking in tears,[1][6] Columella of medicines, and Seneca of wool that will not take certain dyes.[7][2] Ovid also has a child drinking in its nurse's rage with dog's milk.[1] Figuratively it means to take in with the mind: Seneca writes perbibisti nequitiam, “you have drunk your fill of wickedness”, and of absorbing the liberal studies,[1][6] Quintilian says a child will take in Latin even against our will,[1] and Lactantius that people's minds have drunk in the sap of folly.[7][2] The TLL also cites it from medical writers and the Regula Magistri.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of weariness drinking up the marrow.[1][5]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of things soaking something up.[1][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the earth drinking in tears.[1][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of taking in wickedness and learning.[1][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a child taking in a language.[1][5]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of minds drinking in folly.[7][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drink deeply, drink up.[1][2]
  2. (figurative) To imbibe with the mind or senses.[1][7]
  3. Of things, to absorb, soak up.[1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  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 d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press