adiuro

Forms

adiūrō (present infinitive adiūrāre, perfect active adiūrāvī, supine adiūrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + iūrō (“to swear”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of iūs² (“law, oath”), from which iūrō was formed as a denominative verb, Proto-Italic *jowes-ā-je-;^[4] Old Latin has the third person ⟨iouvesat⟩ “swears” in the Duenos inscription.^[4] He traces iūs² to an s-stem going back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂oi-u (“vital force, eternity”).^[4] Ancient commentators on Virgil explained the prefix as a mere addition to iūrō or as meaning “very”;^[3] Servius also reports that some reserved the compound for swearing that something was not so.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on.^[4] In the Amphitruo a character demands that the other “swear besides” that he did not mean what he said (adiuret insuper nolle esse dicta).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it means to affirm something on oath, with an accusative and infinitive, with ut or absolutely, in Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Livy, Suetonius and Statius.^[2][3] Livy also uses it of swearing something in addition to the common oath of all citizens.^[5] With a direct object it means to swear by a person or thing: Catullus swears by a head, and Virgil by the head of the Stygian spring.^[2][3]

In later Latin it came to mean to put someone under oath, and to entreat someone earnestly, as in Lactantius, Vopiscus and the Vulgate.^[3][5] Christian writers such as Minucius Felix and Lactantius use it of adjuring demons by the name of God, that is, of exorcising them.^[5][3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to adjure or swear.^[6] From it English took adjure in the late 14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of affirming something on oath.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it with per omnis deos.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of swearing by the Stygian spring.^[2][8]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of adjuring demons by God.^[5][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of putting under oath and of entreating.^[5][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as adjure.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To affirm with an oath, to swear (that something is so); to swear in addition.^[2][5]
2. To swear by (a god, a person or thing).^[2][3]
3. (Late Latin) To put under oath; to entreat earnestly, conjure.^[3][5]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To adjure (demons), to exorcise.^[5][6]

Word family

• adiūrāmentum
• adiūrātiō
• adiūrātor
• adiūrātōrius

Related words

• abiūrō
• coniūrō
• dēierō
• ēiūrō
• iniūrō
• iūreiūrō
• obiūrō
• pēierō
• English adjure

Usage notes

Georges notes a different word adiūrō, an old contracted form of the future perfect adiūverō of adiuvō.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press