tenuo Latin · revision 32963

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 180–102 BC, Lucilius|origins=ine-pro *tnh₂-(e)u-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈtɛ.nu.oː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛː.nu.o]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tenuō''' (present infinitive tenuāre, perfect active tenuāvī, supine tenuātum); first conjugation^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|tenuis|-ō|t1=thin]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan traces [[m|la|tenuis]] to [[itc-pro|*tn̥(a)u-]] and [[ine-pro|*tnh₂-(e)u-|t=thin]], remade from a u-stem into an i-stem, and compares [[sa|तनु|tr=tanú-|t=thin, slender]] and [[grc|ταναός|tr=tanaós|t=thin, elongated]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Its first quotation is from Lucilius, on spelling: one is to make the sound thin, with ⟨i⟩, in ''pilam'' and ''pilum'', but add ⟨e⟩ for the plural ''peila''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is to make thin or slender: Ovid has a man's legs joined and tapering into a snake's tail, and the moon thinning its full orb.^(OLD 2012) It is to wear down, as Lucretius' ring worn thin on the finger and Ovid's ploughshare, and to make the body lean: Virgil's breeders thin their herds on purpose.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is used of reducing a swelling, of streams shrinking into many channels, and of making things less dense: Horace has the night air thin out the dregs of Massic wine.^(OLD 2012) It is also to reduce non-material things, as anger, to make the voice thin, as in Ovid, and to belittle: in Horace one is told to stop diminishing great things in small measures.^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short find it in poetry and post-Augustan prose.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Church Latin glosses it to lessen or make thin.^(Stelten 1995) English ''attenuate'' comes from its compound [[attenuo|alt=attenuō]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of thinning a vowel.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a ring worn thin.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of herds kept lean.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of thinning wine in the night air.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a man turned into a snake.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To make thin or slender, [[m|en|attenuate]]; to cause to taper; to draw out (wool).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To wear down; to make lean, [[m|en|emaciate]]; to shrink.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To make less dense, [[m|en|rarefy]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # To reduce, diminish; to make (the voice) thin; to belittle.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # ''(phonetics)'' To narrow (a sound) into a single vowel.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[attenuō]]

+ * [[extenuō]]

+ * [[tenuabilis]]

+ * [[tenuatim]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[tenuis]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}