semino

Forms

sēminō (present infinitive sēmināre, perfect active sēmināvī, supine sēminātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin sēmen (“seed”) + -ō.^[2][3] De Vaan treats the verb, with sēmen, under serō¹ (“to sow”), and the noun goes back to Proto-Italic *sēmn̥ and Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-mn̥ (“seed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it in the Amphitruo of begetting a child, who will be born in the tenth month after he was conceived.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to sow, plant” appears in Cicero, who writes that no farmer's cultivation can sow a plant as long-lived as one sown by a poet's verse (nullius agricolae cultu stirps tam diuturna quam poetae versu seminari potest).^[2] Columella uses it for sowing barley, wheat and fields.^[6][7] Virgil uses it of plants that reproduce,^[5] and Lactantius figuratively, of spreading something.^[5] Lewis & Short call the verb rare and give serō¹ and plantō as synonyms.^[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to sow, produce and beget.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of begetting a child in the Amphitruo.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sowing, figuratively of a poet's verse.^[2][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of plants reproducing.^[5][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of sowing barley, wheat and fields.^[6][9]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it figuratively, of spreading something.^[5][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sow or plant.^[2][6]
2. To sow (land) with a crop.^[2]
3. To beget, procreate.^[2][6]
4. (of plants) To produce, reproduce.^[5][3]
5. (figurative) To propagate, spread.^[5]

Word family

• dissēminō
• insēminō
• intersēminō
• praesemino
• prōsēminō
• resēminō
• sēminātor
• sēminiverbius
• supersēminō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de