Etymologically
Log in

abstergeo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [apˈstɛr.ɡe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [abˈstɛr.d͡ʒe.o][1]

Forms

abstergeō (present infinitive abstergēre, perfect active abstersī, supine abstersum); second conjugation[1] It is also spelled apstergeō, and a third-conjugation abstergō is found in Church Latin.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- (“away”) + tergeō (“to wipe, rub clean”), with the prefix in the form ⟨abs-⟩.[2][1] De Vaan traces tergeō to Proto-Italic *terg- and finds no certain cognates.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first: in the Asinaria a woman should wipe her lips clean rather than kiss anyone openly, and in the Mercator someone is told to wipe off his sweat.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to clean by wiping and to wipe something off: Lucilius has wiping away tears, and Terence wiping wounds.[2][3] Curtius uses it of oars stripped off as ships crashed together.[2] Figuratively it is to banish a feeling, as Cicero wants to wipe the fear from a friend's mind.[2] The TLL notes that abstergeō is the older form;[5][3] Lewis & Short find abstergō only in spurious readings and in Church Latin, as in the Vulgate's Apocalypse.[5][3] Stelten gives “blot out, wipe away”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of wiping lips and sweat.[2][7]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, of wiping away tears.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of banishing fear.[2][7]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, in the form abstergō.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To clean by wiping, wipe clean; to dry by wiping.[2][3][1]
  2. To wipe off or away (sweat, tears); to strip off.[2][3][1][6]
  3. To banish, dispel (feelings).[2][1]

References

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