tondeo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈtɔn.de.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtɔn.de.o]^[1]

Forms

tondeō (present infinitive tondēre, perfect active totondī, supine tōnsum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *tond-eje-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *tond-eie- (“to shear”), a causative-iterative of Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to cut”).^[2][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek τένδω (téndō, “to gnaw”) and Old Irish teinnid (“breaks, cuts”).^[2][3] The perfect totondī may be recent or continue an old *te-tond-.^[2] A link with *temh₁- “to cut”, the root of temnō, is suggested by the sense but cannot be proven.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to cut or clip the hair, to shave, as Cicero's dancing girl with cropped hair and his barbam et capillum, and to shear sheep or clip a fleece, so that Varro uses it of shearing sheep and of his own hair.^[3][4] Of plants it meant to trim, lop, prune, to mow, and of animals to crop or browse grass.^[3][6] Figuratively, and very rarely, it meant to fleece someone, to plunder him.^[4]

The Appendix Probi corrects detundo to tondeo.^[7] Its descendants include French tondre and Romanian tunde.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of shearing sheep.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a dancing girl with cropped hair.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut the hair of, clip, shave.^[3]
2. To shear (sheep); to clip (wool).^[3]
3. To trim, lop, prune; to mow, (of animals) to crop, browse.^[3][6]
4. (figurative) To fleece, plunder.^[4]

Word family

• attondeō
• circumtonsus
• dētondeō
• intondeō
• intōnsus
• praetondeō
• retondeō
• tōnsa
• tonsilis
• tōnsiō
• tonsitō
• tōnsor

Related words

• temnō
• English tonsure

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.