rubeo

Forms

rubeō (present infinitive rubēre, perfect active rubuī); second conjugation, no supine stem, third person-only in the passive^[1] The perfect rubuī belongs to rubēscō as well.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ruðēō, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰéh₁ti, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”);^[1] the OLD analyses it as the root of ruber (“red”) with the stative suffix -eō.^[2] De Vaan derives ⟨ruber⟩ from Proto-Italic *ruþro- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰ-ró- (“red”), cognate with Umbrian rufru (“red”), Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá-, “red, bloody”) and Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós, “red”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short's earliest examples are from Lucretius: the whole body red with ulcers as if burnt in, and the morning light of the sun reddening across the grass.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to be red or ruddy, of eyes red from weeping in Catullus, wool red with Tyrian purple and shore and waves red with blood in Ovid.^[4] Of people it is to blush, from shame, modesty or joy: Cicero writes to Atticus “I blush, believe me”, and in the Verrines describes a man who stammered, wavered and blushed.^[2][4] Its participle rubēns became an adjective “red, reddish”.^[4]

Church Latin has it for blush, redden, be ruddy.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a body red with ulcers.^[4][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of eyes red from weeping.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of blushing.^[2][4][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid of a shore red with blood.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be red or ruddy; to be red with blood.^[2][4][1][6]
2. Of people, to blush, from shame, modesty or joy.^[2][4][1][6]

Word family

• rubēdō
• rubefaciō
• rubicundus
• rūbidus
• rubor
• subrubeō
• rubēscō
• rubēns
• rubeus
• rubicundulus

Related words

• rubellus
• ruber
• rūbrīca

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson