substerno

Forms

substernō (present infinitive substernere, perfect active substrāvī, supine substrātum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- (“under”) + sternō (“to spread, strew”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces sternō to Proto-Italic *sterna- and Proto-Indo-European *st(e)r-n-h₃- (“to spread, strew”), cognate with Sanskrit स्तृणाति (str̥ṇā́ti, “to spread out”) and Ancient Greek στόρνυμι (stórnumi, “to spread”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[3] who tells the farmer to spread bedding under the sheep.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to spread something out underneath, as bedding: Terence has the command to take boughs and spread them out, and Lucretius the sea stretched out under the heavens.^[2] Catullus uses it of arms laid under a neck, a gesture of yielding.^[2] Varro has a floor strewn with chaff, and Cicero hens that line their nests softly.^[4][2] Figuratively it is to lay something before another, to give it up or surrender it: Cicero has everything bodily placed beneath the soul, and Suetonius a woman's chastity given up to someone.^[4]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, of bedding for sheep.^[4][3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of spreading out boughs.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of the sea spread under the sky.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of a floor strewn with chaff.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of arms laid under a neck.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spread out underneath as bedding or an underlay.^[2][4][1]
2. To spread one's body or limbs under, in yielding.^[2]
3. To strew or cover with material forming an underlay.^[2][4]
4. (figurative) To place beneath, submit; to give up, surrender.^[4][1]

Word family

• substrāmen

Related words

• sternō
• strātum
• strāmentum
• cōnsternō¹

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 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