Etymologically
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saturo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsa.tʊ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsaː.tu.ro][1]

Forms

saturō (present infinitive saturāre, perfect active saturāvī, supine saturātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin satur (“full, sated”) + -ō.[2][3] De Vaan traces satur to Proto-Italic *saturo- (“well-fed”), built on Proto-Indo-European *s(e)h₂-tu- (“satiation”), the root of satis (“enough”); he compares Lithuanian sótus (“satisfied, full”) and Old Irish sáith (“fullness”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus has someone tell a sister that these things make life wearisome.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to fill with food or drink, sate: Varro has sheep fed full on fallen ears, and Cicero animals sated at the udder.[2][3] Figuratively it is to satisfy a person or his passions: the Rhetorica ad Herennium has someone told to sate his anger with another's blood.[2] It is also to drench: Virgil tells the farmer not to be ashamed to soak dry soil with rich dung.[2] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical, with satiō as a synonym.[3] Church Latin glosses it to fill, satisfy.[6] English saturate comes from its past participle, from the 1530s, first meaning to satisfy.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being weary of life.[2][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of sheep fed full.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of soaking soil with dung.[2][5]
  • 1530s – English saturate.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fill with food, sate, satisfy.[2][3][1][6]
  2. To satisfy a person or a passion; to weary, cloy.[2][3]
  3. To drench, saturate.[2]

Word family

  • exsaturō
  • insaturatus
  • insaturus
  • obsaturō
  • saturamen
  • saturatim
  • saturātiō
  • saturator
  • saturābilis

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com