titio

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈtiː.ti.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtit.t͡si.o]^[1]

Forms

tītiō m (genitive tītiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It may be inherited from Proto-Italic *tī-ti- (“heating”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *teyh₁- (“to become hot, melt”), as the LIV has it.^[2][1] Possible cognates are Old Irish tinaid (“melts, disappears”), Hittite zē- (“to cook”) and Old Norse þíðr (“thawed”), though Kloekhorst takes the root's first sense as “to end, finish”.^[2] The OLD compares Ancient Greek τιτώ (titṓ, “day”) and Lithuanian tìtnagas (“flint”), and Walde and Hofmann thought of a word from Asia Minor through Greek.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro, quoted by Nonius.^[2][5] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a piece of burning wood, a firebrand, as in Celsus and Hyginus.^[3][5][6] Lewis and Short quote an ancient remark that the common people call a half-burnt log taken from the hearth titiō.^[5] A titiō was also a man's name.^[6]

In Medieval Latin it was a burning log, also in figurative uses.^[7][8] It survives in almost every Romance language, in Romanian tăciune, Italian tizzone, French tison and Spanish tizón, and also as a name for smut, a disease of grain.^[9][1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a firebrand.^[5][4]
• 1288 – Italian tizzone is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of burning wood, firebrand.^[3]

Word family

• titiunculus

Related words

• fax
• torris

Usage notes

It is distinct from the verb titiō “to twitter”, said of sparrows, recorded by Suetonius.^[3][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom