cresco

Latin verb

Last edited: 2025-05-26
Primary meaning to wax
Literal translation to grow
Variants
cresco
Edited by
to wax lunar phase

of the moon

si vero plena lumine uel crescens Luna Veneri vel Marti se aliqua radiatione coniunxerit, maximas calamitates et maxima facit infortunia concitari.

‘But if a full or waxing Moon comes into aspect with Venus or Mars, it brings about the greatest catastrophes and stirs up enormous ill fortune’

— Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2.7.3

Genre: astrological compendium
Provenance: Sicily
Date: ca. 334 CE

Firmicus Maternus. 1897. Ivlii Firmici Materni Matheseos Libri VIII, ed. W. Kroll, F. Skutsch. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner. 1.49

to grow mathematical term

sed certa sub lege, prioris semper ut astri incolumem servent summam crescantque novando.

‘but under the strict condition that they ever preserve intact the sum of the former sign and grow by accumulating.’

— Manilius, Astronomica 3.411 f

Genre: astrological treatise

Manilius. Astronomica. Edited and translated by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 469. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977. 194-195

to increase in magnitude astronomical event, term of visual perception

ut facile discerni posset ex eo non modo an obirent ac nascerentur sed an omnino aliquae transirent moverenturque, item an crescerent minuerenturque, caelo in hereditate cunctis relicto, si quisquam qui cretionem eam caperet inventus esseus esset.

‘in order that from that time onward it might be possible easily to discern not only whether stars perish and are born, but whether some are in transit and in motion, and also whether they increase and decrease in magnitude—thus bequeathing the heavens as a legacy to all mankind, supposing anybody had been found to claim that inheritance!’

— Pliny, Natural History 2.95

Genre: encyclopedia
Provenance: Rome
Date: 77-79 CE

Pliny. Natural History, Volume I: Books 1-2. Translated by H. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 330. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). cresco (Lemma #943). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). cresco (Lemma #943). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/
MLA (9th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). cresco (Lemma #943). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/
Harvard
Meinhardt, K. (2025) cresco (Lemma #943), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/ (Accessed: December 1, 2025).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac943,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2025-12-01]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2025},
	title = {cresco ({Lemma} #943)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/943/},
}