umecto

Forms

ūmectō (present infinitive ūmectāre, perfect active ūmectāvī, supine ūmectātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ūmectus (“moist, wet”) + -ō,^[2] also spelled ⟨hūm-⟩.^[2][3] The adjective belongs with ūmeō “to be moist”, which goes back to Proto-Italic *ūmo- (“wet”);^[4][1] de Vaan follows Weiss in deriving this from Proto-Indo-European *uh₁-mo- (“wet”), while earlier scholars connected it with the root of ūvidus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucretius,^[4][2] who uses it of moistening faces with salt tears.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^[3] Virgil uses it of the river Galaesus watering the yellow fields, Ovid of tears wetting the grass, Columella of moistening a lamb's mouth from the udder, and Gellius of drink moistening the lungs.^[2][5][6] Pliny the Elder also uses it intransitively of watering eyes, as of a young sea eagle whose eyes run.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of tears wetting faces.^[2][4][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a river watering fields.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of watering eyes.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make wet, moisten, water.^[2][3][5]
2. (intransitive) Of the eyes, to water; to have watering eyes.^[2][5]

Word family

• umectatio

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de