Etymologically
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adigo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈa.dɪ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.di.ɡo][1]

Forms

adigō (present infinitive adigere, perfect active adēgī, supine adāctum); third conjugation[1] Plautus has an old subjunctive adaxint for adēgerint.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ad- (“to”) + agō (“to drive”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces ⟨agō⟩ to Proto-Italic *age/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”), and compares Old Irish aigid (“drives”);[5] the TLL sets beside it the compound ad·aig (“drives, impels”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it of driving animals: quis hās hūc ovīs adēgit?, “who drove these sheep here?”, in the Bacchides.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to drive cattle or people to a place, and to force under the yoke or into a shape, as Propertius' pine forced into the form of a prow.[2][3] It is to bring near, to bring up ships (Tacitus), to shoot a missile so that it reaches its target, as Caesar's missiles that could not reach the high ships, to drive a stake into the ground (Cato), and to plunge a weapon in, as Lucretius' spear driven deep, or inflict a wound (Virgil).[2] Figuratively it is to drive someone to an action, as Plautus' “may the gods drive me to hang myself”, and in law to compel a person to go before an arbitrator (Cicero).[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “impel, drive, drive to”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of driving sheep.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of driving in a stake.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a weapon driven in.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of hurling missiles.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of compelling someone before an arbitrator.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive (cattle, persons) to a place.[2][1][3]
  2. To force (under the yoke, into a shape).[2]
  3. To bring near; to bring up (ships).[2]
  4. To shoot, hurl (a missile) home.[2][1]
  5. To drive in (a stake, wedge); to thrust (a weapon) in; to inflict (a wound).[2]
  6. To drive, impel (to an action); (law) to compel (to go before an arbitrator).[2][1][7]

Word family

  • adāctiō
  • adactus
  • trānsadigō

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes cōgere, to compel by force and power, from adigere, to bring someone to something by reasons and motives.[8]

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 m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper