sternuto

Forms

sternūtō (present infinitive sternūtāre, perfect active sternūtāvī, supine sternūtātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sternuō (“to sneeze”), a frequentative formed with the suffix -tō.^[2][3][1]

Sternuō goes back to Proto-Italic *(p)ster-nu- and Proto-Indo-European *(p)st-(e)r-nu- (“to sneeze”);^[4] de Vaan compares Ancient Greek πτάρνυμαι (ptárnumai, “to sneeze”) and Breton streviañ (“to sneeze”), and notes that imitation of the sound may have reshaped all the cognates, though a common form with internal /r/ is unlikely to have been invented separately.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Petronius uses it twice in the Satyricon, meaning to sneeze again and again.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to sneeze repeatedly or violently.^[2] Besides Petronius, Pliny the Elder has it.^[3][6] According to Georges, Macrobius reports that the grammarian Caper rejected the form.^[5]

Timeline

• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it in the Satyricon.^[3][5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[3][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius records that Caper disapproved of it.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sneeze repeatedly or violently.^[2][3][5]

Word family

• sternūtāmentum
• sternūtātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de