Etymologically
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agger

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɡ.ɡɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈad.d͡ʒer][1]

Forms

agger m (genitive aggeris); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is connected with aggerō (“to carry to, pile up”), from ad- (“to”) and gerō (“to carry”).[2][3][1] De Vaan notes that the stem ⟨*-ges-⟩ is younger than Proto-Indo-European, so the noun is not an inherited root noun; he derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *ges-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to carry”), an extension of the root of agō.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius, of a siege: aggere in iaciendō, “in throwing up a ramp”, when the sheds have been moved up.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

An agger is first the material piled up for an earthwork, rubble or earth (Caesar), then the work itself: a ramp built by besiegers, a defensive rampart, and in particular the rampart of Rome ascribed to Servius Tullius, on which Horace walks in the sun.[2][3] It is also a mole or pier, a dam or dyke, and the raised bank of a river (Virgil).[2] Of land it is a ridge or hill, and the raised bed of a road (Virgil's snake caught on the agger viae); of piles, a funeral mound or pyre, a heap of snow, or a towering wave.[2]

Döderlein distinguishes the agger, a single line like a dam, from the vallum, a line that encloses a space.[6] Church Latin glosses it “mound, heap, wall”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a siege ramp.[2][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of rubble, ramparts and a mole.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of the Servian rampart.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of dykes, river banks and a raised road.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Material for an earthwork; rubble, earth.[2][1]
  2. A siege ramp; a rampart, earthwork; the Servian rampart of Rome.[2][1]
  3. A mole, pier; a dam, dyke; a river bank.[2][1]
  4. A ridge, hill; a raised road, causeway.[2][1]
  5. A mound, pile, heap; a funeral pyre; a towering wave.[2][7]

Word family

  • aggerō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson