sudo

Forms

sūdō (present infinitive sūdāre, perfect active sūdāvī, supine sūdātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb, probably formed on a noun Proto-Italic *swoido- (“sweat”), continuing Proto-Indo-European *suoid-o- (“sweat”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *sweyd- (“to sweat”), which survives as a noun in Indo-Iranian and Germanic.^[2][1] The noun sūdor (“sweat”) is from the same root.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit स्वेद (svéda-, “sweat”), Ancient Greek ἱδρώς (hidrṓs, “sweat”), Welsh chwys (“sweat”), Old English swāt (“sweat”) and Old High German sweiz (“sweat”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius.^[2] The OLD's first example is Plautus' Asinaria, where a man who sweats and shivers at once is taken for a bad omen.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “to sweat, perspire”, with the moisture in the ablative or accusative, as in Celsus' cold sweat; transitively it is to soak with sweat, as Quintilian's sweat-soaked clothes.^[3] Very often it means to sweat with effort, to toil hard, as Terence's “you will sweat enough if you take on that man”, and transitively to produce something with great exertion.^[3][4] Of things it is to be damp or to ooze: Ennius has the earth sweating with blood, Catullus a pine with sweating bark, and Virgil balsam oozing from fragrant wood.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a sweating man.^[3][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the earth sweating blood.^[3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of hard toil.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of balsam oozing from wood.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sweat, perspire; to soak with sweat.^[3][4][1]
2. To sweat with effort, toil; to produce with great exertion.^[3][4]
3. Of things, to be damp; to ooze, exude.^[3][4]

Word family

• circumsūdō
• consūdō
• dēsūdō
• exsūdō
• insūdō
• praesūdō
• resūdō
• sūdābundus
• sūdārium
• sūdātiō
• sūdātōr
• sūdātrix

Related words

• sūdor
• English sweat

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d 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