spisso

Forms

spissō (present infinitive spissāre, perfect active spissāvī, supine spissātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin spissus (“thick, dense”) + -ō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses of fire that thickens and passes into air.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It belonged to poetry and post-Augustan prose, especially Pliny the Elder, who uses it of milk thickened by fire.^[3] Seneca has it of branches packed tightly together, and Celsus of a wind that makes a healthy body firm.^[2] In Petronius it is to press on with a task.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of fire condensing into air.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the body made firm.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of pressing on with a duty.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of thickened milk.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thicken, condense.^[2][3]
2. To pack tightly, press together.^[2]
3. (medicine) To make (the flesh) firm.^[2]
4. To intensify (an effort), press on with.^[2][1]

Word family

• conspissō
• inspissō
• spissāmentum
• spissescō

Related words

• spissus

Usage notes

The OLD has a separate adverb spissō “slowly, late”, also from spissus, found in Afranius.^[2][5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn