Etymologically
Log in

tepidus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 00:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtɛ.pɪ.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛː.pi.dus][1]

Forms

tepidus (feminine tepida, neuter tepidum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from tepeō (“to be warm”) with the suffix -idus.[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨tepeō⟩ to Proto-Italic *tepē- (“to be warm”) and Proto-Indo-European *t(e)p-eh₁- (“to be warm”), cognate with Old Irish té (“hot”), Sanskrit तपति (tápati, “heats”) and Russian тёплый (tjóplyj, “warm”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Ennius as its first author,[4] who has it of “warm blood” in a tragedy.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is moderately warm or lukewarm, as Lucilius' warm glue, of weather and seasons mild, as Varro's warmer days for hatching geese, and of places with a mild climate.[2] It is used of the warmth of a living body, as in Ennius, and of things warmed by it, as Petronius' warm bed.[2] It is also less hot than wanted, lukewarm, as Horace's tepid sauce, and figuratively unenthusiastic, as Ovid's “warm up a lukewarm heart”.[2][5]

Church Latin glosses it “lukewarm, tepid, feeble, faint”.[6]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of warm blood.[2][4]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of lukewarm glue.[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of mild weather.[2][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of lukewarm feelings.[2][4]
  • c. 1400 – Borrowed into English as tepid.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Moderately warm, lukewarm, tepid, (of weather, places) mild.[2][1][5]
  2. Warm (with the warmth of a living body).[2]
  3. Not hot enough, cooled, (figurative) lukewarm, unenthusiastic, faint.[2][1][6]

Word family

  • pertepidus
  • tepidārius
  • tepidē
  • tepeō
  • tepor
  • tepōrus
  • calidus
  • English tepid

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 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com