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aggero

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aggero1 bring, carry to

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɡ.ɡɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈad.d͡ʒe.ro][1]

Forms

aggerō (present infinitive aggerere, perfect active aggessī, supine aggestum); third conjugation[1] Also spelled adgerō.[2][3][4]

Etymology

The verb “bring” is from Latin ad- (“to, towards”) + gerō (“to carry, bear”).[2][4][1] De Vaan lists it, from Plautus on, among the compounds of gerō, which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to carry”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL counts the gerundive aggerunda three times in Plautus,[4] as in the Poenulus: aggerunda … aqua sunt viri duo defessi, “two men are worn out with fetching water”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to bring, carry or fetch something to a place: Varro has small fish brought in, and Cicero mud and silt carried up.[2][4][6] Mixed with the first-conjugation verb from agger it came to mean to heap or pile up: Caesar has earth heaped against piles to hold the water, and Virgil earth heaped on a tomb.[2][4] Figuratively it is to heap on or lavish, as Tacitus has accusations piled even on the innocent, and Seneca uses it of feeding flames.[2][6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses aggerunda aqua, water to be fetched.[2][4][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of small fish being brought in.[4][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of earth heaped up against piles.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of charges heaped on the innocent.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bring, carry or fetch (to or up to a place).[2][3][6]
  2. To push close up against something.[2]
  3. To heap or pile up (on or into); to accumulate.[2][4]
  4. (figurative) To heap on, lavish (accusations, benefits); to feed (flames).[2][6]

Word family

  • aggestus
  • aggestiō

aggero2 heap up

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɡ.ɡɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈad.d͡ʒe.ro][1]

Forms

aggerō (present infinitive aggerāre, perfect active aggerāvī, supine aggerātum); first conjugation[1] Also spelled adgerō.[2][3][4]

Etymology

The verb “heap up” is from Latin agger (“heap of earth, rampart”), a first-conjugation verb made from the noun.[2][4][1] The grammarian Eutyches already explained that the noun comes from the third-conjugation verb and this verb from the noun.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first quotation is from Virgil's Georgics, where Tisiphone heaps up bodies dissolving in foul decay (aggerat … cadavera).[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to pile things into a heap, as Virgil has prizes heaped up, and Tacitus bones scattered or heaped.[2][4] It is also to build up a road or a structure by piling material, as Tacitus has a causeway once raised by Lucius Domitius, and Vitruvius bricks easily built up.[2][6] Columella uses it of earthing up trees and plants, and of filling or covering something plentifully.[2][6] Phaedrus has a miser adding pennies to his estate.[2][4]

Figuratively it is to reinforce or intensify: Virgil has aggerat iras, heaps up anger, and Silius uses it of exaggerating disasters in speech.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of heaped-up corpses and prizes, and of mounting anger.[2][4][7]
  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of adding money to an estate.[2][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of earthing up trees.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a causeway built up through marshes.[2][6][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To heap up (something against or over another thing); to add by accumulation.[2]
  2. To pile up, form into a heap.[2][3]
  3. To build up (a road or structure) by piling material.[2][6]
  4. (agriculture) To earth up (a tree or plant).[2][6]
  5. To fill or cover plentifully (with something).[2][8]
  6. To reinforce, intensify; to exaggerate.[2][6]

Word family

  • adaggerō
  • aggerātim
  • aggerātiō
  • circumaggerō
  • coaggerō
  • exaggerō
  • superaggerō

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 o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier