tremesco

Forms

tremēscō (present infinitive tremēscere); third conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1] Also spelled tremīscō in Lewis and Short, Gaffiot, Conte and Wiktionary;^[2][3][4][1] Georges rejects that spelling.^[5]

Etymology

It is from Latin tremō (“to tremble”) + -ēscō (“inchoative suffix”).^[6][1][7] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *trem-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tr(e)m- (“to tremble”), and compares Ancient Greek τρέμω (trémō, “to tremble”) and Lithuanian trìmti (“to tremble”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotation is from Lucretius, of houses that shake as wagons pass along the road;^[6][2] Georges also cites a fragment of Varro, magna ut tremescat Roma, “so that great Rome may tremble”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is chiefly poetic.^[2] Intransitively it means to tremble, quiver, shake: Virgil has the heights of the earth trembling with thunder, Ovid's Medea makes the mountains tremble, and Statius uses it of lightning.^[6][2] Of living beings it means to tremble with fear, as in Ovid, of one who starts at every noise.^[6][4] Transitively it means to tremble at, to dread: Virgil has sonitumque pedum vocemque tremesco, “I tremble at the sound of feet and voice”, and uses it with an infinitive clause, and Statius with an indirect question.^[6][2][3]

Wiktionary lists Spanish and Portuguese estremecer and Lombard forms among its descendants.^[1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – A fragment of Varro has magna ut tremescat Roma.^[5][9]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of shaking houses.^[6][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of mountains and, transitively, of fearing a sound.^[6][2][9]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of trembling with fear.^[6][4][9]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it often.^[6][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tremble, quiver, vibrate; to begin to shake.^[6][2][1]
2. To tremble with fear.^[6][5]
3. (transitive) To tremble at, dread.^[6][2][3]

Word family

• pertremisco
• contremēscō

Related words

• tremō
• horrēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de