sterto

Forms

stertō (present infinitive stertere, perfect active stertuī); third conjugation, no supine stem, impersonal in the passive^[1] Priscian gives the perfect stertuī, which the compound dēstertuit in Persius supports.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is related to sternuō (“to sneeze”): de Vaan lists it with that verb, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(p)st-(e)r-nu- (“to sneeze”),^[4] and the OLD calls it cognate, comparing Old Irish srennim (“I snore”) beside sreod (“a sneeze”).^[5] Wiktionary adds that it cannot be a regular frequentative of the verb for sneezing, and that it may instead be related to strepō and strīdō.^[1] Lewis & Short and Georges compared Ancient Greek δαρθάνω (darthánō, “to sleep”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has noctem tōtam stertere, “to snore all night”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to snore,^[5][2] and so to sleep soundly:^[3] Terence has someone snore night and day, and Cicero writes that Marcellus snored so loudly that he heard him next door.^[2] Lucretius speaks of one who snores while awake, and Juvenal writes of snoring with a watchful nose.^[2] Pliny the Elder has the participle as a noun, stertēns, a snorer.^[2] It is used figuratively of idleness in the Vulgate and in Prudentius, who speaks of the mind snoring in a sluggish breast.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of snoring all night.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[2]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a man who snores while awake.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Marcellus' snoring.^[2]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To snore.^[5][2][1][6]
2. To sleep soundly;^[2][3] (figurative) to be idle, sluggish.^[2][3]

Word family

• destertō

Related words

• sternuō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson