Etymologically
Log in

angusto

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 15:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aŋˈɡʊs.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aŋˈɡus.to][1]

Forms

angustō (present infinitive angustāre, perfect active angustāvī, supine angustātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin angustus (“narrow”) + -ō.[2][1] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *angosto- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂emǵʰ-os-to- (“characterized by narrowness”), built on the s-stem noun behind angor (“anxiety”);[3] it belongs with angō (“to squeeze, choke”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Catullus has it in poem 64 of a river whose course is choked with heaps of slain bodies: iter caesis angustans corporum acervis.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the first century AD it was used of narrowing in space: Lucan of a town that narrows the jaws of the sea, Pomponius Mela of lands that close in, and Pliny the Elder of a well that narrows at the mouth.[2][4] Statius uses it of choking the breath of a monster.[2][4] Seneca uses it of a crowd of slaves that makes even a large house cramped, and figuratively of cutting down one's property and of limiting one's joys.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a river choked with bodies.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of crowding and of restricting.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a well narrowing at the mouth.[4][5]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of strangling.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make narrow, reduce in width.[2][4]
  2. To constrict, strangle.[2]
  3. To reduce in size or amount; to limit, restrict.[2][4]
  4. To crowd, choke; to press together.[2]

Word family

  • coangustō

Usage notes

Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan, though they cite Catullus.[4] The OLD's first citation is Cicero's Republic, where the earth is said to be narrowed at its poles,[2] but the TLL notes that the manuscripts of Macrobius, who quotes the passage, read the adjective angusta, rightly in its view.[6]

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