voro

Forms

vorō (present infinitive vorāre, perfect active vorāvī, supine vorātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably a denominative verb from a noun or adjective ⟨*gʷorā-⟩, “food” or “devouring”.^[2] It is inherited from Proto-Italic *gʷo/erā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷo/erh₃-o/h₂- (“devouring, devoured”).^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit गिरति (giráti, “devours, swallows”), Ancient Greek βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat”) and Ancient Greek βορά (borá, “fodder”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] in whom someone is advised to swallow Egyptian resin in honey, resinam ex melle Aegyptiam vorato.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to swallow ravenously, to devour;^[3] Cicero distinguishes animals that swallow whole from those that chew, alia vorant, alia mandunt.^[4] Figuratively it is to deal with something voraciously, as when Cicero writes to Atticus that he is devouring literature.^[3] Of natural forces and cavities it is to engulf, as when a whirlpool in Virgil swallows a ship in the sea,^[3] and of disease to eat away, as in Celsus' ulcer that eats the body to the bone.^[3] Wiktionary also records a vulgar sense, to fellate.^[1] In Church Latin it is to eat greedily, to devour.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of swallowing a remedy.^[3][2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of animals that swallow and of devouring books.^[3][4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a whirlpool engulfing a ship.^[3][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of an ulcer.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swallow ravenously, to devour, eat greedily.^[3][4][1][5]
2. (figurative) To deal with voraciously, as to read eagerly.^[3][1]
3. Of natural forces: to engulf, swallow up;^[3][1] of disease, to eat away.^[3]
4. (vulgar) To fellate.^[1]

Word family

• dēvorō
• trānsvorō
• vorāgō
• vorātor
• vorātrīna
• vorātus
• vorāx

Related words

• vorācitās
• vorāciter
• vorāginōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 l m n 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de