vomitus
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Pronunciation
Forms
vomitus m (genitive vomitūs); fourth declension[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin vomō (“to vomit”) + -tus, with the suffix of action nouns.[2][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *weme/o- and Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to vomit”).[3][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is found from Plautus on,[3][4] meaning the act of vomiting; in the Rudens he has pulmōneum vomitum vomere, to vomit up one's lungs.[5][6]
Semantic evolution
Besides the act of vomiting, it came to mean the matter vomited, as in Celsus and Pliny the Elder.[2][5] Lucilius and Plautus also used it as a term of abuse for a disgusting person.[5][6]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for vomiting.[2][4]
- c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it as a term of abuse.[5][4]
- 14–37 AD – Celsus uses the plural for green and black vomit.[2][5][4]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for vomited matter.[5][4]
Meanings
Noun
Usage notes
Vomitus, -a, -um is also the perfect passive participle of vomō, which Gaffiot lists as a separate headword.[6]
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.