ructo

Forms

rū̆ctō (present infinitive rū̆ctāre, perfect active rū̆ctāvī, supine rū̆ctātum); first conjugation^[1] A deponent form ructor is used by Varro and Horace.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin *rūgō (“to belch”) + -tō, a frequentative formed on the stem of a simple verb that is not attested on its own.^[2][1] Its compound ērūgō (“to belch”) is found from Ennius on, and the noun ructus (“belch”) from Plautus.^[4] De Vaan traces the root to Proto-Italic *roug-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁reuǵ-e/o- (“to belch”).^[4]

Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρεύγομαι (ereúgomai, “to belch out, vomit”), Lithuanian ráugėti (“to belch”) and Old English rocettan (“to belch”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on.^[4] In the Pseudolus one character asks another, pergin ructare in os mihi?, “will you keep belching in my face?”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Used intransitively it means simply to belch: Cicero speaks of a man for whom even belching would be shameful, and Pliny the Elder of someone who never spat or belched.^[3][6] With an object it names the food or drink whose taste or fumes come back up: Varro, using the deponent, says he still “belches” someone's birds, and Pliny the Elder has a stomach that “belches” sour things.^[3][6]

From this it came to mean bringing something up with a belch: Silius Italicus has blood belched from a lion's throat, and both he and Statius use it of natural forces, a river or fire that belches out what it carries.^[2] Horace mocks a poet who “belches out” lofty verses,^[2][3] and later writers use it scornfully of words that are always in someone's mouth: Tertullian of displayed wisdom, Sidonius Apollinaris of a man who “belches the Tiber”, that is, speaks polished Roman Latin.^[3][6][5] Palladius uses it of the earth giving off vapour.^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of belching in someone's face.^[5][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the deponent ructor with the food as object.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Philippics.^[3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes of verses being belched out.^[2]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of disgorging blood.^[2][3]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of flaunting wisdom.^[6][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris uses it of speaking elegant Latin.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To belch, eructate.^[2][3]
2. (transitive) To belch up the taste or fumes of (food or drink).^[2][3]
3. (transitive) To disgorge with belches; of natural forces, to spew out.^[2]
4. (figurative) To utter, to keep talking about; to flaunt.^[3][6]

Word family

• ērū̆ctō

Related words

• ructus
• ērūgō
• rūmen

References

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