The corpus record — Latin

macero

macero · v. a

to make soft

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Cistellaria 3 · 5.74/10k
Poenulus 6 · 5.44/10k
De Re Coquinaria 7 · 4.46/10k
De Virginibus Velandis 2 · 3.59/10k
Epodon 1 · 3.33/10k
De agri cultura 5 · 3.2/10k
Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 2.88/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 21 · 2.67/10k
De Paenitentia 1 · 2.45/10k
Captivi 2 · 2.31/10k
Maximini Duo 1 · 1.84/10k
De Consolatione ad Polybium 1 · 1.76/10k

Densest 12 of 45 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. mācĕro — Lewis & Short

mācĕro, āvi, ātum, 1, v. a.prob. from root mag-, ma/ssw, to knead; through an adj. mācerus; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 395; cf. also măcer,

I to make soft or tender, to soften by steeping, to soak, steep, macerate (not in Cic. or Cæs.).

I Lit.: brassicam in aquam, Cato, R. R. 156, 5: salsamenta, Ter. Ad. 3, 3, 27: in piscina lupinum, Col. 1, 6, 21: semen lacte, id. 11, 3, 51: (ramos genistae) marinā aquā, Plin. 24, 9, 40, § 66: (siliginem) novem diebus maceratum ... subigunt, id. 18, 11, 27, § 106: grana (cacaliae) in oleo, id. 25, 11, 85, § 135: intestina piscium sale, id. 31, 7, 43, § 93: podagrici crura macerantes, Vitr. 18, 3.—

II Transf., to weaken in body or mind, to waste away, enervate.

A Of the body: multos iste morbus homines macerat, Plaut. Capt. 3, 4, 22; Liv. 26, 13: quam lentis macerer ignibus, Hor. C. 1, 13, 8; cf.: Macedo siti maceratus, Curt. 5, 13, 24: pars exercitus ad utilitatem nostram macerata perductaque ad exitiabilem famem, Vell. 2, 112, 4: Fabius sic maceravit Hannibalem, ut, etc., i. e. Hannibal's army, Flor. 2, 6, 28: muscus crura vitium situ et veterno macerat, Col. 4, 22, 6: cor solum viscerum vitiis non maceratur, Plin. 11, 37, 69, § 182.—

B Of the mind, to fret, vex, torment, distress, torture, pain (syn.: crucio, torqueo): egemet me concoquo et macero et defatigo, fret myself, Plaut. Trin. 2, 1, 2: quor me excrucio? quor me macero? quor meam senectutem sollicito? Ter. And. 5, 3, 15; cf. id. Eun. 1, 2, 107: noli te macerare, id. And. 4, 2, 2: cura satis me lacrumis maceravi, Plaut. Capt. 5, 1, 8: hoc me facinus miserum macerat, id. Mil. 3, 1, 21: infelix sollicitudo persequitur nec oratorem macerat et coquit, * Quint. 12, 10, 77: quae vos macerent desiderio, Liv. 5, 54, 3; 26, 13, 8.—Poet., with a causal object-clause: consimili ratione ab eodem saepe timore macerat invidia, ante oculos illum esse potentem, Lucr. 3, 75.— Mid., to vex, torment one's self: maceror interdum, quod sim tibi causa dolendi, Ov. H. 2, 125: unum hoc maceror et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti, C. Caes. ap. Suet. Vit. Ter. fin.: ex desiderio magis magisque maceror, Afran. ap. Charis. p. 182 P.

2. mäcerö — Walde–Hofmann

mäcerö, -äre „aufweichen, mürbe machen" (s. d.; Curtius 325, Vanitek 206) zu lett. mäcu, mákt „drängen, drücken, plagen, quälen“, tech. mackám „drücke, presse“, bulg. má£kam „knete, presse, drücke“ (Deminutivbldg., ein einfaches *makati voraussetzend, Berneker II 2); Gbd. „aus Lehm geknetete Mauer“ (vgl. gr. teixog : fingö und unter mäcerö). Weitere Bez. unsicher. Curtius und Vanicek a. O. stellen hierher gr. jon. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. mäcerö, p. 909]

3. mäcerö — Walde–Hofmann

mäcerö, -üpi -ätum, -äre „weiche ein, mache mürbe, beize, wüssere"; übtr. „schwäche, entkrüfte, gräme ab“ (z. T. durch Einwirkung von macer?, Brüch ZRPh. 41, 581); spätl. auch ,prügeln* (wie mactäre; vgl d. windelweich schlagen?) und „verdauen“ (vgl. d. verdauen : tauen, schwed. smälta „schmelzen“ und „verdauen“) (seit 1* 4 machaera — mactus. Liv. Andr. [com- seit Ambr., per- Vitr., prae- Scrib. Larg., &mäceratus … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. mäcerö, p. 909]

In the wild

maceratum Columella, Res Rustica, Books I-IX 8.14.10
macerati Cato, De agri cultura 54
maceratum Columella, Res Rustica, Books I-IX 6.14.2
macerat Plautus, Casina 2.8
maceratum Apicius, De Re Coquinaria 4.116
macerant Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 32.7.p4

6 of 153 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. mäcerö (scan p. 909; entry #1645). Root candidates: *meng-, *maj-, *mag-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.