remedio

Forms

remediō (present infinitive remediāre, perfect active remediāvī, supine remediātum); first conjugation^[1][2] A deponent remedior is also found,^[2][3] and the TLL records the spelling remend-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin remedium (“cure, remedy”), with the verbal ending -ō.^[1][2][4] De Vaan lists the noun among the derivatives of medeor (“to heal”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *med-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the physician Scribonius Largus (about AD 47),^[1][6] meaning to treat a patient with a remedy, and of a medicine, to cure: he says that a live black torpedo fish cures a headache for good.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

It remained a medical word of post-Classical Latin, a synonym of sānō, cūrō and medicō.^[3] Gargilius Martialis uses it of curing an ox,^[4] and Tertullian of curing bodily defects.^[4][7] The deponent remedior appears in Jerome and the herbal ascribed to Apuleius,^[3][2] and a Greek–Latin glossary renders θεραπεύω (therapeúō) with remedior, medicō and medeor.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to heal or cure.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of treating patients and of medicines that cure.^[1][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of curing bodily defects.^[4][6]
• c. 383–420 AD – Jerome uses the deponent remedior.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To treat with a remedy, usually with success.^[1]
2. Of a medicine or treatment: to cure, heal.^[1][3][4]

Related words

• remediābilis
• remediālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson