Etymologically
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aurigo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [au̯ˈriː.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [au̯ˈriː.ɡo][1]

Forms

aurīgō (present infinitive aurīgāre, perfect active aurīgāvī, supine aurīgātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aurīga (“charioteer”) + -ō.[2][3][4][1] Varro uses a deponent form, ⟨aurīgor⟩.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use, in Varro's Menippean satires, is already figurative: nature, not necessity, is said to guide;[3][5][6] Nonius, who quotes the line, explains the verb as “governs and directs”.[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the literal sense it is a word of the Empire, most frequent in Suetonius.[7][3] Pliny the Elder describes Nero about to drive in a garment of matching colour.[3][4] Suetonius tells how Caligula had the circus strewn with red lead and malachite and let only senators drive, how Nero drove at Olympia even a team of ten horses, and how Vitellius won the favour of Caligula through his love of driving.[3][7] The Theodosian Code of 403 speaks of people kept busy by a passion for chariot racing.[3] The present participle was used as a noun for charioteers.[4]

The figurative sense of guiding and governing continued: Gellius reports the view that men do nothing of themselves but with the stars leading and driving them.[3][4][5] The verb gave aurīgātiō and aurīgātor.[1]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses the deponent of nature guiding.[3][5][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes Nero driving a chariot.[3][4][6]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it often of the chariot-driving of emperors.[3][7][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius writes of the stars driving men.[3][4][6]
  • 403 AD – The Theodosian Code mentions people devoted to chariot racing.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive a chariot; to be a charioteer, to race in the circus.[2][7][4][1]
  2. (figuratively) To guide, govern, direct.[4][5][1]
  3. (Late Latin, present participle as a noun) aurīgantēs: charioteers.[4]

Word family

  • aurīgātiō
  • aurīgātor

Usage notes

A separate noun aurīgō (genitive aurīginis), “jaundice; mildew”, is another form of aurūgō, from aurum (“gold”).[1][3][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press