Etymologically
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revivisco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛ.wiːˈwiːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [re.viˈvis.ko][1]

Forms

revīvīscō (present infinitive revīvīscere, perfect active revīxī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1] Also revīvēscō, the usual form outside Cicero.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“again”) + vīvō (“to live”) + -scō (“inchoative suffix”),[2][1] an inchoative “to come to life again”; de Vaan lists ⟨revīvēscere⟩ among the derivatives of vīvō, beside vīvēscō (“to come to life”).[4] He traces that verb to Proto-Italic *gʷīwe/o- (“to live”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃-ue/o- (“to live”).[4]

Cognate with Oscan bivus (“alive”) and Sanskrit जीवति (jī́vati, “to live”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Terence on,[4][2] who has it of a dead man: one may wish him alive and well, but ille revivescet iam numquam, “he will never come to life again”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to come to life again, of the dead, and by exaggeration of people who were unconscious or seemed dead: Ovid has ad tua verba revixi, “at your words I came back to life”, and Celsus reports people who revived at their own funerals.[2][5] Varro uses it of bees that recover when warmed, Pliny the Elder of shellfish, and Columella and Pliny of plants and leaves that grow again.[2][6]

Lewis and Short call it a favourite word with Cicero, especially in a figurative sense:[3] he writes that the memory of himself and the longing for him revived, that the majesty of the Roman people came to life again, and that justice and restraint revived with his arrival.[2][3][6] Pliny the Elder says that an art ceased and then revived in a later Olympiad, and Petronius speaks of a reviving friendship.[2][5] The Vulgate has peccatum revixit, “sin revived”, in the Epistle to the Romans.[3]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a dead man who will never live again.[2][4][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of bees.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it often, especially figuratively.[2][3][7]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius has reviviscentem amicitiam.[2][5][7]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – The Vulgate uses it of sin reviving.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To come to life again, be restored to life, revive.[2][3][5]
  2. (of animals and plants) To recover; to grow again.[2][6]
  3. (figurative) To become active or flourishing again, recover strength.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de