sinuo

Forms

sinuō (present infinitive sinuāre, perfect active sinuāvī, supine sinuātum); first conjugation^[1] Silius Italicus scans sinu- as one long syllable.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sinus (“curve, fold”) + -ō.^[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs sinus as Proto-Italic *sinu-, probably connected with Albanian gji (“breast”), with no further etymology.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil uses it of the serpent that winds its huge back in coils: sinuat immensa volumine terga.^[4][5] Lewis & Short think it perhaps not found before the Augustan age.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend or curve something, as a flame bent three times into a slanting torch in Propertius,^[2] to bend a bow, as in Ovid,^[2] and to give a curved shape to features of a landscape, as Ovid's stream bent into curving arcs.^[2] Of the wind it is to billow out sails or clothes, as Ovid's garments fluttering in the breeze.^[2] It is also to make something move in curves, or to follow a winding course, as a chariot axle in Silius Italicus,^[2] and Celsus uses it of fluid that hollows out the sound flesh near it.^[2] Lewis & Short find it most often in the poets.^[4] In Church Latin it is to bend, wind, curve or swell.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a serpent winding its coils.^[4][5]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius, of a curving flame.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a bent bow and billowing clothes.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of hollowing out flesh.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend, wind, curve; to bend (a bow).^[2][4][1]
2. Of the wind: to billow out, fill out.^[2]
3. To make move in curves; to follow a winding course.^[2]
4. To hollow out, excavate.^[2][1]

Word family

• exsinuo
• īnsinuō
• sinuātiō
• sinuāmen

Related words

• sinuōsē
• sinuōsus
• sinus

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 j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson