Etymologically
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voro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈwɔ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈvɔː.ro][1]

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

  • 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