potus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpoː.tʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpɔː.tus]^[1]

Forms

pōtus (feminine pōta, neuter pōtum); first/second-declension participle^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pōto- (“drunk”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ph₃-to- (“drunk”), the participle of the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (“to drink”), with the full grade taken from the root aorist.^[2][1] Cognate with Sanskrit अपात् (ápāt, “drank”), a Sanskrit aorist, and Ancient Greek ἔπιον (épion, “I drank”), and with Hittite pāš- (“to swallow”).^[2][3] pōculum “cup” is from the same root, and with pōtus it spread the vowel ⟨pō-⟩ to the other derivatives, as pōtō “to drink”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As the participle of pōtāre it meant “drunk”, both “having been drunk” of a liquid and “having drunk”, and so “drunken”, as in Cicero.^[5][6] The noun pōtus, -ūs meant the action of drinking, as Celsus' aquam pōtuī dare “to give water to drink”, and a drink, as Mela's people whose drink is milk and the juice of berries.^[5][7]

In Medieval Latin pōtus also meant spiced wine, and a Celtic word pottus “pot” took the same form.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a drunken man.^[6][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus speaks of giving water to drink.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Of a liquid) drunk, drained.^[5]
2. Having drunk; drunk, intoxicated.^[6]

Noun

1. The act of drinking.^[5]
2. A drink, draught.^[5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Spiced wine.^[8]

Related words

• bibō
• pōtō
• pōculum
• English potion
• English potable

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill