rubesco

Forms

rubēscō (present infinitive rubēscere, perfect active rubuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rubeō (“to be red”) + -scō,^[2][1][3] an inchoative verb.^[3] De Vaan lists rubeō with ruber (“red”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ruþro- (“red”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰ-ró- (“red”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Virgil:^[3] in the Aeneid the dawn is reddening, the sea reddens with the sun's rays, and the fields of Neptune redden with fresh slaughter.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it poetic and found in post-Augustan prose.^[3] Ovid uses it of the morning and of rocks reddened with blood, and Pliny the Elder of roses.^[3][6] The OLD notes the present participle used as an adjective, “reddish”.^[2]

Seneca uses it of blushing: nothing was gentler than Pompey's face, which always blushed before company.^[2][3][5] Jerome writes of cheeks that redden charmingly.^[5]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the dawn and the sea.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the morning and of blood-stained rocks.^[3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of blushing.^[2][7]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of reddening cheeks.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become red, redden; present participle, reddish.^[2][3]
2. Of people, to blush with shame or embarrassment.^[2][5]

Related words

• rubeō
• ruber
• ērubēscō

Usage notes

In Ovid's Metamorphoses 7.78, where older editions read rubuere, the text now has erubuere from ērubēscō.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de