Etymologically
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visco

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Forms

viscō (present infinitive viscāre, perfect active viscāvī, supine viscātum); first conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin viscum (“mistletoe; birdlime”) + -ō.[1][3][4] De Vaan takes viscum as an inherited word or a European loanword for the mistletoe or another fruit-bearing tree, comparing Ancient Greek ἰξός (ixós, “mistletoe; birdlime”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conte cites it first from Ovid's Ars amatoria.[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to catch or hold fast with birdlime, and also with other sticky substances.[1] Juvenal has it of a husband's lips glued with his wife's face cream (hinc miseri viscantur labra mariti, “from this the poor husband's lips are glued”),[7][3][6] and the physician Theodorus Priscianus of pus that sticks between the joints.[7][3]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Ars amatoria.[6][8]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of lips glued with face cream.[7][3][8]
  • c. 400 AD – Theodorus Priscianus uses it of pus sticking between the joints.[7][3][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To catch or hold fast with birdlime.[1][6]
  2. To smear with something sticky;[1][7][3] (passive) to be glued, stick.[1][7][3]
  • viscātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de