vomo

Forms

vomō (present infinitive vomere, perfect active vomuī, supine vomitum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *weme/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *uemh1- (“to vomit”); the old root present was made thematic in Latin.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit वमिति (vámiti, “vomits”), Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō, “to vomit”) and Lithuanian vémti (“to vomit”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] whose Casina has “go away, unless you want me to be sick today!”.^[3] Ennius already has the Tiber pouring into the salt sea.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means “to vomit, be sick”, and transitively to throw up food or blood, as Virgil's bull vomiting blood mixed with foam.^[3][4] Lewis and Short note vomiting as a common Roman way of renewing the appetite.^[4] Of things it is “to pour or belch out”, of rivers into the sea and of Etna's fire.^[3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “vomit”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being sick.^[3][2][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the Tiber pouring into the sea.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a bull vomiting blood.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To vomit, be sick.^[3][4][1][5]
2. To vomit up, spew out.^[3][1]
3. Of things, to pour or belch out, discharge.^[3][1]

Word family

• vomāx
• vomica
• vomificus
• vomitiō
• vomitō
• uomitor
• vomitōrius
• vomitus

Related words

• vomicōsus
• vomicus
• vomifluus
• English vomit

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b 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