titubo

Forms

titubō (present infinitive titubāre, perfect active titubāvī, supine titubātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The OLD calls it onomatopoeic.^[2] Wiktionary takes it as a reduplicated form of Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-, from *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”), and compares stupeō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotations are in Plautus: the Pseudolus has weeping with a wavering mind, and in the Miles Gloriosus Philocomasium must be told not to slip up if the soldier questions her.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its bodily sense is to walk unsteadily, especially when drunk, to stagger: the Rhetorica ad Herennium has an opponent who blushed, went pale and faltered, and Ovid has Silenus staggering with years and wine and someone reeling as if they had drunk neat wine.^[2][4] Phaedrus has a man coming home late on a staggering foot.^[2] Of things it is to rock or quake, as Seneca's tottering buildings, and of the bodily powers to falter, as the tongue.^[2] From Plautus on it is also to waver in mind: Cicero describes Licinius wavering, hesitating and giving way.^[2] It is also to make a slip in speech or action: Cicero says of people who come from a single house that if they slip in one word they will have nowhere to turn.^[2] Döderlein says it refers to the feet that fail and stagger, unlike labāre, which is said of the whole body, and vacillāre, of the upper body.^[5] English titubate (1570s) is from its past participle.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a wavering heart and of slipping up.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a hesitating witness.^[2][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of Silenus staggering with wine.^[4][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of tottering buildings and a faltering tongue.^[2][3]
• 1570s – English titubate.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stagger, totter, reel (especially when drunk); of things, to rock, quake; of the faculties, to falter.^[2][4][1][7]
2. To waver, hesitate, be uncertain.^[2][1][7]
3. To make a slip in speech or action, stumble.^[2]

Word family

• subtitubo
• titubantia
• titubātiō
• titubanter

Related words

• English titubate

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 m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson