valesco

Forms

valēscō (present infinitive valēscere, perfect active valuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin valeō (“to be strong, be well”) + -ēscō, an inchoative.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces valeō to Proto-Italic *wal-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *h2ulh1-eh1- (“to be strong”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Lucretius,^[2][3] who writes of children drinking the bitter juice of wormwood, deceived but not harmed, and rather restored so that they grow well: recreata valescat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to become sound in health, to grow strong,^[2][3] and more widely to become powerful or gain ascendancy:^[2] Tacitus says that as the Germans grew stronger most of the states took up arms against Rome, and that crimes grow strong by haste and good plans by delay.^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it rare and note that Cicero does not use it.^[3] Ambrose uses it of the juice by which the whole body grows strong.^[3] In Church Latin it is to grow strong.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of a child restored to health.^[2][3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of the Germans growing powerful.^[2][6]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose, of the body growing strong.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grow strong, acquire strength; to become sound in health.^[2][3][1]
2. To become powerful, gain ascendancy, prevail.^[2][3]

Related words

• valeō
• convalēscō
• invalēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de