perosus

Forms

perōsus (feminine perōsa, neuter perōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin perōdī (“to hate greatly”), its participle, made of per- and ōdī (“to hate”).^[2][1] Wiktionary notes that the prefixed form replaced plain ōsus in this function by the end of the Republic,^[1] and Festus already remarks that the old form was found in Gaius Gracchus, while the form with the prefix was the usual one in his day.^[3] De Vaan traces ōdī to Proto-Italic *ōd- (“to hate”) and the perfect Proto-Indo-European *h₃e-h₃(o)d- (“to hate”), cognate with Ancient Greek ὀδύσσασθαι (odússasthai, “to be angry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil has lucem perosi, “loathing the light”,^[5][6] and Livy says the plebs had come to hate the name of consuls.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is active, “hating, loathing”, and also “weary of”:^[6][1] Livy has men hating the crimes of the decemvirs, Ovid hating Crete and a long exile, and Curtius hating solitude;^[5][6] Augustus writes in a letter quoted by Suetonius, “if they do not hate the Roman people”.^[5] Prudentius has it with a genitive.^[6] From Late Latin on it is also passive, “hated, hateful”: Juvencus has a hated marriage, and Tertullian one hateful to God and the comparative perōsior.^[5][6][1] Apuleius has the adverb perōsē.^[5] Church Latin has “hating”.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, “loathing the light”.^[5][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of hating the name of consuls.^[5][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of hating exile.^[5][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian, “hateful”.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hating, loathing, detesting; weary of.^[2][5][6][1]
2. (Late Latin) Hated, hateful.^[5][6][1]

Related words

• ōsus
• exōsus
• ōdī
• perōdī

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de