splendesco

Forms

splendēscō (present infinitive splendēscere, perfect active splenduī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin splendeō (“to shine”) + -scō (“inchoative suffix”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces splendeō to Proto-Indo-European *splnd(ʰ)-eh₁- (“to be manifest”), a stem whose Celtic relatives, such as Old Irish sluindid (“to express, declare, name”), kept the sense of making something known.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, the first to use it, has it only figuratively:^[4][5] nothing is so rough that it does not splendēscat ōrātiōne, “gain lustre from eloquence” (Paradoxa Stoicorum 3).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it of the voice, whose ringing quality can shine even in old age.^[2][6] The literal sense, “to begin to shine”, is in Virgil, who wants the ploughshare to start gleaming as the furrow wears it, and in Ovid, who saw the sky shine with the flames of Etna.^[4][7] Pliny the Younger writes of a finished work that no longer gains lustre from the file.^[2][7]

The perfect splenduī is cited from Augustine's Confessions.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of style and of the voice.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a ploughshare beginning to shine.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of the sky lit by Etna's flames.^[4][5]
• 354–430 – Augustine has the perfect splenduī.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to shine, grow bright; to become glossy or lustrous.^[2][7]
2. (figurative, of style) To gain lustre, become brilliant.^[2]
3. (of the voice) To ring out clearly.^[2]

Word family

• consplendesco
• desplendesco
• exsplendēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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 f 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. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn