Etymologically
Log in

abigo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 18:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈa.bɪ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.bi.ɡo][1]

Forms

abigō (present infinitive abigere, perfect active abēgī, supine abāctum); third conjugation[1] Glossaries also have abagō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- + agō (“to drive”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.[3][2][1] The verb agō goes back to Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- (“to do, act”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to drive, lead”) and Sanskrit अजति (ájati, “drives”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first examples are in Plautus, as “I will drive him away from the house as soon as he comes”, and in Ennius' “drive away the plague from me”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is first to drive away cattle, as Varro's flocks of sheep driven from Apulia to Samnium for the summer, and to drive off or steal them, as in Cicero's charge that Verres had a man's herds of mares carried off.[3][5] It is also to drive or frighten away, as in Cicero's “put a stick beside me to drive off the beasts”, to reject a friend, and to ward off dangers.[3] Of conditions it is to dispel, as in Plautus' “drive away your weariness”, and abigere partum is to cause an abortion, in Cicero.[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of a magnet that repels iron, and Paulus' abridgement of Festus says magistrates who were forced to lay down office were called abacti.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “banish, drive away”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of driving someone away.[5][7]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of warding off a plague.[3][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of driving flocks.[3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of stealing cattle and of abortion.[3][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a magnet repelling iron.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive away cattle; to drive off, steal them.[3][5][1]
  2. To drive away, frighten off, banish; to reject; to ward off.[3][5][1]
  3. To repel.[3]
  4. To deter; to remove from office.[3][1]
  5. To dispel, relieve;[3][5] abigere partum, to cause an abortion.[3][5][1]

Word family

  • abāctiō
  • abāctor
  • abāctus
  • abiga
  • abāctius
  • abagmentum
  • abigeus
  • abigeātor
  • abigeātus
  • agō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de