tescum
Meaning
- in pluralneuterwilderness, wasteland, desert
Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Solitudo · Vasta · Deserta · Tesca
Solitudo denotes the solitude of a place, indifferently or with praise; whereas vasta, deserta, tesca loca, with blame; vasta loca, as uncultivated wastes, in opp. to sulta; whereas deserta, as uninhabited deserts, in opp. to habitata; and tesca, or tesqua, (from tacere,) as lonely places, where an awful stillness reigns, in opp. to celebria. (iii. 226.)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | tescum | tesca tesqua |
| genitive | tescī tesquī | tescōrum tesquōrum |
| dative | tescō tesquō | tescīs tesquīs |
| accusative | tescum | tesca tesqua |
| ablative | tescō tesquō | tescīs tesquīs |
| vocative | tescum | tesca tesqua |
Origins
Uncertain and lacking agreement on the precise meaning. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”), with regular simplification of *-rs- > /s/ before a voiceless consonant (compare testis). Compare pāscuum for the formation. The c in the plural is likely to be analogical after the regular /kʷum > kum/ in the singular. A connection with Proto-Indo-European *tews- (“to be empty”), the source of Sanskrit तुच्छ (tuccha, “empty”), is rejected by De Vaan, who mentions Dunkel's proposal that teskʷ- is derived by dissimilation from twes-kʷ- but points out that *twes- is not an ablaut grade of this root.