Etymologically
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vaporo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [waˈpoː.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [vaˈpɔː.ro][1]

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