Etymologically
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refoveo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈfɔ.we.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈfɔː.ve.o][1]

Forms

refoveō (present infinitive refovēre, perfect active refōvī, supine refōtum); second conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + foveō (“to keep warm, cherish”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces foveō to Proto-Italic *foχweje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰogʷʰ-eie- (“to burn”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short note that it is not found before Augustus;[5] Ovid has a letter-writer tell the addressee that their breast warmed hers again.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to warm again, and to reinvigorate or revive: Ovid has collapsed limbs revived, Pliny the Elder the smell of cucumber relieving faintness, and Columella soil revived by frequent manuring.[2] It is also to restore countries and institutions, as Curtius' long peace that revives everything, and practices, as the Younger Pliny's studies almost extinct and now revived.[2] Statius uses it of cheering up someone in doubt.[2] Church Latin glosses it to revive, refresh, cherish.[6]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of warming and reviving.[2]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of reviving soil.[2][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of relieving faintness.[2]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of cheering someone up.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To warm again.[2][5][1]
  2. To revive, refresh, reinvigorate; to restore (countries, practices).[2][5][1][6]
  3. To cheer up.[2]
  • cōnfoveō
  • effoveō
  • foveō
  • perfoveō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de