Etymologically
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temulentus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [teː.mʊˈɫɛn.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [te.muˈlɛn.tus][1]

Forms

tēmulentus (feminine tēmulenta, neuter tēmulentum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed on the stem of tēmētum “strong drink” with the suffix -ulentus (“full of”),[2][1] on the model of vīnolentus.[3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *tēmo- (“intoxication”) from Proto-Indo-European *tēmH- (“intoxication”), perhaps an old root noun, which abstēmius also contains; he compares German dämlich and dämisch.[4] Köbler cites Pokorny's root ⟨*tem-⟩ “stunned, dazed”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence,[4][5] who has a drunken woman.[3] Novius and Afranius, quoted by Festus, also use it.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is drunk or intoxicated: Cicero writes of a drunken man watching a coming storm, Livy of a drunken column revelling its way through India, and Tacitus says that in Vitellius' camp all was disordered and drunken.[3] Caelius, quoted by Quintilian, has someone found sunk in drunken sleep.[3][2] It is used of actions and faculties too, as Cicero's thick and drunken voice.[2] Seneca uses the plural as a noun, the drunk, and Apuleius has hair dripping with ambrosia.[3] Lewis & Short give ēbrius and vīnōsus as synonyms;[3] Döderlein says that vīnolentia and the old word tēmulentia present drunkenness in its disgusting light, as brutal excess and loss of memory.[6] Church Latin glosses it drunk.[7]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a drunken woman.[3][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a drunken voice.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a drunken column in India.[3][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of Vitellius' drunken camp.[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Drunken, intoxicated.[2][3][1][7]
  2. Of actions or faculties, showing drunkenness.[2]
  3. (figurative) Dripping, soaked.[3]

Word family

  • tēmulentia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson