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aggredior

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word aggredior

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin gradior
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin gradior
Latin aggredior
From the same root
Latin circumgredior ← gradior
Latin congredior ← gradior
Latin grassor ← gradior
Latin gressus ← gradior
Latin ingredior ← gradior
Latin praegredior ← gradior
Latin praetergredior ← gradior
Latin progredior ← gradior
Latin regredior ← gradior
Latin suggredior ← gradior
Latin supergredior ← gradior

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aɡˈɡrɛ.di.ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aɡˈɡrɛː.di.or][1]

Forms

aggredior (present infinitive aggredī, perfect active aggressus sum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, deponent[1] Also spelled adgredior.[2][3] Plautus has fourth-conjugation forms such as aggredīmur, aggredībor and the infinitives aggredīrī and aggredīrier;[2][4] Ennius has a perfect participle adgretus.[2][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + gradior (“to step, walk”).[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on, meaning to go up to someone: in the Curculio a character says adgredior hominem, salūtō adveniēns, “I go up to the man and greet him as I come”.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From approaching a person, often to speak to or ask something of them, it came to mean approaching with hostile intent: to attack a person, and in the historians an army.[2][4] Sallust uses it of working on people with money, that is, of bribery.[2][4] From setting about a person it passed to setting about a task, and with an infinitive to beginning or attempting to do something;[2] Seneca's tragedies also use it of seizing power by force.[2] Lewis and Short note that Cicero and the historians use it very often, Horace never.[4] The grammarian Priscian lists it among the verbs the ancients also used in a passive sense.[3]

Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the senses “approach, undertake”.[6] English aggression, from the 1610s, comes through French from the Latin noun aggressiō, made from its perfect participle.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of going up to someone.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of attacking a person and of beginning to speak of something.[2][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of attacking an enemy with all one's forces.[2][5]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of tampering with people by money.[2][4][5]
  • 1610s – English aggression “unprovoked attack” comes from its derivative aggressiō.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go or advance towards; to approach.[2][4]
  2. To go up to a person to speak to them; to accost, address, solicit.[2][4]
  3. To approach with hostile intent; to attack, assault.[2][4]
  4. (military) To attack, beset.[2]
  5. To work on a person; to try to corrupt or bribe.[2][4]
  6. To set about a task; to undertake, deal with.[2][4][6]
  7. With an infinitive: to set oneself, begin, attempt.[2][4]
  8. To try to obtain by force; to seize an opportunity.[2]

Word family

  • aggressiō
  • aggressor
  • aggressūra
  • aggressus

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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
Cite this entry

“Aggredior.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/aggredior. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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