subtexo

Forms

subtexō (present infinitive subtexere, perfect active subtexuī, supine subtextum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- (“under”) + texō (“to weave”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces texō to Proto-Italic *tekse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-s- (“to fashion”), comparing Hittite takš-zi (“to devise, undertake”) and Sanskrit तक्षति (tákṣati, “to hammer, form, fashion”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Lucretius,^[2][4] who writes that clouds veil the sky from below (subtexunt nubila caelum).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, and not found in Cicero.^[6] Literally it means to weave something on the underside of a fabric or as an appendage to it: Juvenal uses it of a crescent attached to a black shoe.^[2][6] The poets use it above all of drawing a veil of cloud, smoke or darkness beneath the sun or sky: Virgil of covering the sky with smoke, and Ovid of Circe drawing clouds over her father's head, that is, the sun's.^[2][5] Seneca uses the passive of a rainbow woven into the sky.^[2] From adding something woven, it came to mean adding a supplement or sequel, especially subjoining something in speech or writing, as in Nepos, Velleius Paterculus and Seneca the Elder.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to add, join to, fasten, annex or append.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of clouds veiling the sky.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of covering the sky with smoke.^[2][4]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of adding an account of family origins to a work.^[2][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a crescent attached to a shoe.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To weave on the underside of something or as an appendage to it.^[2][6]
2. To draw a curtain of cloud or darkness beneath the sun or sky; to veil the sky from below.^[2][5]
3. To attach as a supplement or sequel; to subjoin in speech or writing.^[2][7]

Word family

• subtēmen

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson