Etymologically
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squaleo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈskʷaː.ɫe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈskʷaː.le.o][1]

Forms

squāleō (present infinitive squālēre, perfect active squāluī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin squālus (“filthy”) + -eō.[2][3] Wiktionary connects it with squālor (“dirt, roughness”).[1] De Vaan finds no etymology for the adjective; because of its initial ⟨squ-⟩ it is probably not an inherited word.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD find it first in Plautus,[3][2] where a character in the Persa complains that his household goods and his house lie squalid.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its basic idea is roughness: Virgil has rough shells, the scaly back of a lizard, and armour stiff with gold.[2][4] From this it is to be caked with dirt, unkempt, as a filthy beard in Virgil and Dido's unkempt hair in Ovid.[2][4] Cicero uses it only of mourning in squalid clothes: the city was in mourning dress by public decree.[4] Of land it is to lie waste or barren, as Virgil's fields left untilled when the farmers are taken away;[2] Tacitus and Lucan have desert shores and fields.[4] Gellius applies it to a dry, barren style of speech.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a squalid house.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a city in mourning.[4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a scaly lizard, a filthy beard and fields lying waste.[2][4][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a day darkened with ash.[2][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius, of a barren style.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be covered with a rough or scaly layer; to be stiff with something.[2][4][1]
  2. To be caked with dirt, unkempt, squalid.[2][4][1]
  3. To wear the squalid dress of mourning.[4]
  4. Of clouds or daylight, to be dark or murky.[2]
  5. Of land, to lie waste, be barren;[2][1] of style, to be arid.[2]

Word family

  • squālefacio
  • squālidē
  • squāliditās
  • squālitūdō
  • squālus
  • squāma

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 g h i j k l 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