semustus

Forms

sēmustus (feminine sēmusta, neuter sēmustum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Also sēmiustus, the form under which the OLD enters it, scanned as three syllables.^[2][3] Georges notes that the best manuscripts of Virgil, Livy and Tacitus have sēmustus.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmi- (“half”) + ūstus (“burnt”), the second part being the past participle of ūrō (“to burn”);^[2][1][4] Wiktionary explains the contraction of /i/ and /u/ by comparison with sēmustulō.^[1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *ouse/o- (“to burn”) and Proto-Indo-European *h1eus-e/o- (“to burn”), and compares Sanskrit ओषति (oṣati, “burns, scorches”) and Ancient Greek εὕω (heúō, “to singe”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[6] whom Georges cites for a half-burnt Typhon.^[3] Lewis and Short call the form semustus not earlier than Augustus.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It means half-burnt, scorched, singed.^[2][7] Virgil has the body of Enceladus half-burnt by the thunderbolt and half-burnt timbers, Ovid a half-burnt torch, and Livy a half-burnt forum and statues.^[7][3] Velleius Paterculus and Suetonius use it of half-burnt bodies, and Tacitus of the torn and half-burnt remains of houses and of half-burnt ashes.^[7][3] Livy also uses it figuratively, of a man who said that he had escaped the people's fire half-burnt, that is, only just.^[7][3][8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a half-burnt Typhon.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Enceladus and of timbers.^[7][8][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it literally and figuratively.^[7][3][6]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus uses it of a half-burnt body.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus has tectorum vestigia lacera et semusta.^[7][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Half-burnt, scorched, singed.^[2][7][3]
2. (figurative) Having barely escaped (a fire, a danger).^[7][3][8]

Related words

• ūrō
• sēmustulō
• sēmi-

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.