rabio

Forms

rabiō (present infinitive rabere); third (-iō variant) conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

De Vaan treats the verb as the base of rabiēs, rabidus and rabiōsus, and gives it as inherited from Proto-Italic *rab- or *raf-.^[2] The OLD and VOLI take the opposite view and derive the verb from that noun;^[3][4] so did the ancient grammarian Nonius, who says that the verb was made from that noun.^[5]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[2] Schrijver rejected a link with Sanskrit रभ् (rabh-, “to grab”) and proposed instead Tocharian A rapurñe (“desire”) and perhaps Ancient Greek ἔραμαι (éramai, “to desire, love”), a comparison de Vaan finds weak in meaning.^[2] The LIV compares Parthian rf- (“to attack”), and Cheung sets up an Iranian root meaning “to be in violent commotion”, also seen in Khotanese ārūh- (“to move, shake”); de Vaan allows that Latin could have a secondary full grade of such a root, but with only two isolated verbal stems he calls the etymology uncertain.^[2] The TLL likewise suggests a root Proto-Indo-European *rebʰ- (“to move, agitate”), comparing the Parthian verb and Middle High German reben (“to move”),^[5][6] while de Vaan notes that the Middle High German verb stands alone in Germanic and may belong with a verb meaning “to rub”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Caecilius Statius on,^[2] in a comic fragment quoted by Nonius in which someone is said to claim that he is raving (rabere se ait).^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

It was a rare word, used mostly in poetry and in prose after Augustus.^[8] It described furious people, often with a hint of a mad dog: in Varro's Menippean satires a speaker is asked quid latras? quid rabis? (“why do you bark? why do you rave?”),^[5] and Seneca says that the detractors of philosophy will soon be laughing and raving at once (acerrime ridere et acerrime rabere).^[5] Manilius uses it of the Dog Star raging with its own fire and of the barking speech of people born at its rising.^[5]

In Late Latin, Venantius Fortunatus uses the participle of the devil and of a possessed slave grinding his teeth.^[5] The verb kept the third conjugation in the grammarians,^[5] while a first-conjugation verb of the same meaning was made from rabia (see Usage notes).^[5]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius Statius has the first recorded use.^[2][5][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it beside latrō “to bark” in his Menippean satires.^[5][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes a poet's line oculis rabere visa es ardentibus (“you seemed to rave with burning eyes”).^[8][10][9]
• 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of the Dog Star.^[5][9]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the critics of philosophy.^[5][10][9]
• 536–c. 610 AD – Venantius Fortunatus uses the participle of the devil and of a possessed man.^[5][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be rabid, to be in a frenzy as with rabies.^[3][5]
2. (intransitive) To rave, rage, be furious.^[3][8][10] Varro: quid latrās? quid rabis? (“why are you barking? why are you raving?”).^[5]

Word family

• rabidus
• rabiēs
• rabula
• rabiōsus

Usage notes

A first-conjugation verb rabiō, -āre, from rabia, appears in Late Latin, chiefly in the veterinary Mulomedicina Chironis, of animals that have caught rabies and of people bitten by them.^[5] The grammarian Eutyches lists it among verbs formed from fifth-declension nouns.^[5][7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.