Etymologically
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arrogo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈar.rɔ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈar.ro.ɡo][1]

Forms

arrogō (present infinitive arrogāre, perfect active arrogāvī, supine arrogātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled adrogō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + rogō (“to ask”), with ⟨d⟩ assimilated to ⟨r⟩.[2][3][4] De Vaan, who lists it among the derivatives of rogō from Plautus on, takes that verb to be made from a noun meaning “request” or an adjective meaning “stretching”, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵ-o- (“stretching”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus: Venus haec volo adroget te, “I want Venus here to put a question to you”.[2][3] The OLD suggests, with a query, that it means putting a further question, as an assistant to the one who stipulates;[2][3][4] Lewis & Short take it simply as “to ask”.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a political and legal term.[2][3] In Livy it is to appoint one magistrate beside another: the senators thought it unseemly to add a dictator to Camillus as sole consul.[2][3] In law it meant to adopt a grown man as one's son, especially at his own request.[2][3]

From Cicero on it most often means to claim something for oneself, a right or a quality: Cicero uses it of claiming power over words as well as things, and of making undue claims.[2][3] Horace uses it the other way, of fortune granting glory to another.[2] Apuleius uses it of matter added from outside.[2] English arrogate, first recorded in the 1530s, comes from its past participle.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of putting a question to someone.[2][4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of claiming something for oneself.[2][3][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of granting glory to another.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of adding a dictator to a consul.[2][6]
  • 1530s – English arrogate is formed from its past participle.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put a further question to (perhaps as an assistant in a stipulation).[2][3]
  2. To appoint (a magistrate) beside or over another; to bring in (something additional).[2][3]
  3. To claim as one's own; to claim to have (a quality); to make undue claims, be conceited.[2][3][1]
  4. To claim for another, assign, attribute.[2][3]
  5. (law) To adopt (a grown man) as one's son.[2][3]

Word family

  • arrogantia
  • arrogātiō
  • arrogātor
  • arroganter
  • arrogāns

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 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 k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de