subsum

Forms

subsum (present infinitive subesse, perfect active subfuī, future active participle subfutūrus); irregular conjugation, suppletive, no passive, no supine stem except in the future active participle, no gerund^[1] It is also spelled supsum.^[2] The perfect suffuī is recorded only by Festus.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin sub- (“under”) + sum (“to be”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨sum⟩ to Proto-Italic *es- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it of something latent: in the Mostellaria a man is to be paid “so that there may be no excuse underneath” (nē qua causa subsiet).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to be underneath, as Virgil's black tongue under the palate, to lie at the foot of a hill or by the sea, as Ovid's grove below the Aventine, and to be close at hand.^[2][5] It is to be under the surface, as a wound beneath the skin, and of feelings and conditions to be latent; to underlie or form the basis of something, as the meaning that lies under a word (Varro); and in Cicero, of estates, to serve as security.^[2] In Cicero it is also of a day that is near, as the day of the elections.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “be under, near, at hand, underlie”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a latent excuse.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of an underlying meaning.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a day at hand and of security.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a tongue under the palate.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be under or below; to lie at the foot (of).^[2][1][5]
2. To be beneath the surface, (of feelings) to be latent.^[2]
3. To underlie, form the basis (of); (law) to serve as security.^[2][6]
4. To be near, at hand, (of times) to be approaching.^[2][1][6]

Related words

• sum
• adsum
• īnsum

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 l m n o 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson