vaporo

Forms

vapōrō (present infinitive vapōrāre, perfect active vapōrāvī, supine vapōrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vapor (“steam, vapour”) + -ō.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucretius, used intransitively of high places that burn as if struck by lightning: invidiā quoniam, ceu fulmine, summa vapōrant, “since the heights are scorched by envy, as by lightning”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Augustan poets it means to fill with smoke or vapour, as with incense, and to warm, as the sun does.^[2][3] In Pliny the Elder and the medical writers it is used of steaming a patient or a part of the body,^[2][3] and Pliny and Seneca also use it intransitively for giving off steam or vapour.^[2][3] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for fumigating and perfuming with incense.^[4]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it intransitively, “to burn”.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has mothers perfume a temple with incense.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the sun warming one side of the land.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for steaming the eyes and for waters that give off steam.^[3][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of altars filled with incense.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill with vapour or smoke; to fumigate, perfume with incense: templum tūre vapōrant, “they fill the temple with incense” (Virgil, Aeneid 11.481).^[2][3]
2. (medicine) To apply steam to a patient or a part of the body.^[2][3]
3. (intransitive) To give off steam or vapour, to reek.^[2][3]
4. To heat, warm.^[2][3]
5. (intransitive) To be hot, burn.^[2][3]

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 l m 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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de