sano

Forms

sānō (present infinitive sānāre, perfect active sānāvī, supine sānātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from sānus (“healthy, sound”) with the verb ending -ō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨sānus⟩ to Proto-Italic *sāno-, and calls the reconstruction Proto-Indo-European *seh₂-no- purely mechanical: it may come from a root “to tie”, as “in place, in order”, or from the root of satis (“enough”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Caecilius Statius as its first author, in whose comedies it is to heal a patient.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to cure a person or the body, to heal a disease or wound, as Cicero's sudden swelling of the eyes that is quickly cured, and the physician's aim, to heal.^[2][5] Figuratively it is to bring a person or mind to reason, as Cicero's calming of minds by speech, and to correct harmful tendencies or put right a loss or error, as the wicked wishes that Cicero could neither cure nor remove.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “heal, cure, restore to health”.^[6]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius of curing a patient.^[2][3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of healing and of bringing minds to reason.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To heal, cure, restore to health.^[2][1][5]
2. (figurative) To bring to reason.^[2]
3. (figurative) To correct, put right, repair.^[2][1]

Word family

• cōnsānō
• persāno
• praesānō
• resano
• sānābilis
• sānātiō
• sanator
• sānēscō

Related words

• sānē
• sānifer
• sānitās
• sāniter
• sānus
• medeor

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes medērī and cūrāre, healing as the physician's act, with sympathy and skill, from sānāre, the effect of the remedy that makes the sick well again.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper