astringo

Forms

astringō (present infinitive astringere, perfect active astrīnxī, supine astrictum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + stringō (“to bind, draw tight”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists it, in the spelling ⟨adstringō⟩, among the compounds of the simplex attested from Plautus on, all of which share its sense “to tie, tighten”.^[4]

The simplex goes back to Proto-Italic *strenge/o- (“to tie”) and Proto-Indo-European *strengh-e/o- (“to draw, tie”); de Vaan thinks that stringō also absorbed a verb meaning “to strip”, from *stri-n-g- (“to brush, strip”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:^[4] in the Captivi a character orders that someone's hands be tied up tightly, the OLD's first sense, “to bind fast”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From binding with bonds it spread to gripping and holding fast, to compressing and contracting (a frown, a clenched fist), and to closing up an opening.^[2] In medicine it described what contracts tissue or binds the bowels, and what is astringent to the taste;^[2] poets used it of freezing and of fear that benumbs.^[2] Figuratively it meant to check or restrain, and, with an ablative, to bind someone by laws or promises.^[2][3]

Medieval writers used it of fettering prisoners and of arresting them, and reflexively of restraining oneself.^[5] In Ecclesiastical Latin se astringere meant to make oneself guilty.^[6] French astreindre and Romanian astrânge continue it, and English borrowed astringe and astrict.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of tying a person's hands tightly.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a tongue held back by a fee and of a discipline bound by laws.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, in the Georgics, uses it of heat closing up gaping channels (venae).^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a soft body freezing solid.^[2][7]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in medicine, of contracting the body and binding the bowels.^[2][7]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of binding a person with iron chains.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bind or tie up tightly; to fasten, tie together; to draw (bonds) tight.^[2][3]
2. To grip tightly; to hold firmly in place.^[2]
3. To compress or contract; to knit (the brows), clench (the fist).^[2]
4. To make narrow, close up (an opening); to shut.^[2]
5. To contract or tone (body tissues), to make costive; to be astringent to the taste.^[2]
6. To freeze, solidify;^[2] (poetic) to benumb (of fear or grief).^[2]
7. To hold back, restrain, check; to tighten up (discipline).^[2]
8. To put under an obligation, bind (by laws, promises and the like).^[2][3]
9. (Medieval Latin) To arrest;^[5] (reflexive) to restrain oneself.^[5]
10. (Ecclesiastical Latin) se astringere: to make oneself guilty.^[6]

Word family

• astrictiō
• astrictorius

Related words

• stringō
• English astringent

Usage notes

Editors print both astringō and the unassimilated adstringō.^[2][3]

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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de