sucus

Forms

sūcus m (genitive sūcī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled succus.^[2][3] Apuleius has a fourth-declension genitive singular sūcūs and genitive plural sūcuum.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *souko- (“juice”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sowḱ-o- (“juice”) (or ⟨*sewḱ-o-⟩).^[4][1] The root “to suck” appears as ⟨*suḱ-⟩ in Welsh sugno (“to suck”) and Russian сосать (sosátʹ, “to suck”), and as ⟨*sug-⟩ in Old English sūgan (“to suck”) and in sūgō (“to suck”), with which the OLD and Lewis and Short connect it.^[4][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author,^[4] whose snails in the Captivi “live on their own juice if no dew falls”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the liquid of a plant, fruit or animal substance, juice, as in Plautus, and also an animal secretion, as Cicero's juice from food that passes to the liver, Lucretius uses it of the juice that gives a thing its flavour.^[2] Juices served as medicines, poisons and magic drugs, as Tibullus' “I gave juices and herbs to take away the bruises”, as dyes and as perfumes.^[2]

It is the vital sap of plants, as Varro's seeds sown before the sap dries, and of people and animals, as Terence's girl with a body “firm and full of sap”.^[2] Figuratively it is vitality, especially of style, as Cicero's orators who kept the “sap” of Pericles.^[2][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of snails living on their juice.^[2][4][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of bodily vigour.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of sap.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the vigour of style.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Juice, liquid; moisture; flavour.^[2][1][3]
2. A juice used as medicine, poison, dye or perfume.^[2]
3. Sap, vital fluid; bodily vigour.^[2][1]
4. (figurative) Vitality, vigour (especially of style).^[2][1]

Word family

• exsūcō
• exsūcus
• sūcidus
• sūcinum
• sūcōsus
• sūculentus
• īnsūcō
• sūcidō

Related words

• sūgō
• liquor
• latex

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de