umeo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈuː.me.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈuː.me.o]^[1]

Forms

ūmeō (present infinitive ūmēre); second conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Italic *ūmo- (“wet”), of uncertain origin.^[1] It has traditionally been derived from Proto-Indo-European *wegʷ- (“wet”) and compared with Ancient Greek ὑγρός (hugrós, “wet”) and Old Norse vǫkr (“moist”), as the OLD does with ūvēscō.^[1][2] The spelling ⟨hūmeō⟩ in manuscripts is less correct.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan, most frequent in the present participle, and Gaffiot cites Virgil's ūmentia lītora “wet shores”.^[3][4] Köbler dates Virgil 70–19 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to be moist, damp, wet, as Virgil's wet shores, Ovid's place wet with warm water and lands that lie wet with marshes, and of cheeks wet with tears.^[2][3][4]

Its derivatives ūmor and ūmidus gave English humor and English humid.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses ūmentia lītora.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of wet places.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be moist, damp, wet.^[2]

Word family

• hūmor
• ūmectus
• ūmefaciō
• ūmidus
• ūmor
• ūmēscō

Related words

• uvidus
• English humid
• English humor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com