remisceo

Forms

remisceō (present infinitive remiscēre, perfect active remiscuī, supine remixtum or remistum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + misceō (“to mix”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces misceō to Proto-Italic *mik-sk-e/o- (“to mix”) and Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sk-e/o-.^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek μίσγω (mísgō, “to mix”), Old Irish mescaid (“mixes”) and Old English miscian (“to mix”).^[4]

It survives in Spanish remecer, which in Old Spanish and in dialects means “to shake”,^[3][1] and in Portuguese remexer.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first examples are in Horace,^[3] who says in the Ars Poetica that Homer mixes the false with the true: sīc vērīs falsa remiscet.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a rare word, and the TLL finds the force of the prefix mostly faded, so that it means little more than “to mix”.^[3] Horace also has a song mingled with Lydian pipes,^[5][6] and Seneca a poison mixed into food that lost its strength,^[5][3] and cold winds mixed into the spring air.^[3] In Seneca's letters the mind will be mingled again with its own nature, the sense “to mix again” that Lewis & Short and Georges give first.^[5][6]

It is written on flasks from Gaul in the imperative, and the Old Latin Bible has it in the Apocalypse.^[3]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of Homer mixing false with true.^[5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of poison mixed into food.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix or mingle in, intermingle.^[2][5]
2. To mix again.^[5][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de