circumstrepo

Forms

circumstrepō (present infinitive circumstrepere, perfect active circumstrepuī, supine circumstrepitum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circum- (“around”) + strepō (“to make a noise”).^[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs the simple verb as Proto-Italic *strepe/o- and compares only Germanic words such as Old Norse þrefa (“to quarrel”), so it is uncertain that it goes back to Proto-Indo-European.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan;^[5] the earliest quotation in the OLD is from Manilius, mundus et inmenso vatem circumstrepit orbe, of the universe resounding around the poet.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Seneca uses it of the noises around him, carriages running past among them, and figuratively of human troubles that din around a man wherever he hides.^[6][7] Tacitus writes of a man assailed by the shouts of mutineers, of others shouting around someone that he should go to the camp, and of people loudly uttering harsher charges.^[6][8] Gellius has chicks trembling and chirping around their mother, and Apuleius windows ringing with songs.^[6][5] Medieval writers use it of fishermen who surround fish with noise and of a troop of horses making a din.^[9]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of the universe resounding around the poet.^[6][10]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of noise around him.^[6][10]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of shouting mutineers.^[6][10]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of chicks chirping around their mother.^[6][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a noise around, surround with noise;^[6][5] (of sounds) to din around.^[6][5]
2. To shout (something) around a person.^[6][8]

Related words

• strepō
• strepitus
• perstrepō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de