spisso
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Pronunciation
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
- To thicken, condense.[2][3]
- To pack tightly, press together.[2]
- (medicine) To make (the flesh) firm.[2]
- To intensify (an effort), press on with.[2][1]
Word family
- conspissō
- inspissō
- spissāmentum
- spissescō
Related words
Usage notes
The OLD has a separate adverb spissō “slowly, late”, also from spissus, found in Afranius.[2][5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn