undo

Forms

undō (present infinitive undāre, perfect active undāvī, supine undātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin unda (“wave”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces unda to Proto-Italic *udōr and Proto-Indo-European *ud-ōr (“water”), cognate with Umbrian utur (“water”) and Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”); he thinks the ā-stem and the sense "wave" may come from an old collective "body of water".^[4] De Vaan dates the verb from Plautus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citations are Ennius, of the surging sea and of an army abounding in booty.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means of the sea and rivers to rise in waves, surge or flood: Accius, quoted by Cicero, speaks of a surging strait, and Seneca of the equinoctial tide.^[3][2] Virgil uses it of bronze pots seething over the flames, of a wound streaming with blood, and of smoke billowing mixed with dust.^[2] Seneca has Cithaeron running with blood.^[2] It also means to move like a wave, undulate: Plautus mocks someone who makes his cloak billow by shaking it.^[2] Silius Italicus uses it of wavering grief.^[2] With an ablative it means to abound in, as Ennius' army abounding in booty.^[2] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^[3] Stelten gives "surge, swell, undulate, flow" for Church Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the surging sea and of an army rich in booty.^[2]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a billowing cloak.^[2][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a surging strait.^[3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of seething pots and billowing smoke.^[2]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the tide and of Cithaeron running with blood.^[3][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of the sea, rivers) To rise in waves, surge, flood;^[2][3][1][5] (of hot water) to seethe.^[2][3][1][5]
2. (of liquids) To gush, well up;^[2] (of wounds, places) to stream or run (with blood).^[2]
3. (of smoke) To billow.^[2]
4. To move in waves, undulate;^[2][1] (of people, feelings) to waver.^[2][1]
5. (with ablative) To abound in.^[2][1]

Word family

• abundō
• exundō
• redundō

Related words

• unda
• inundō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson