Etymologically
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circumvehor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɪrˈkʊm.we.(ɦ)ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃirˈkum.ve.or][1]

Forms

circumvehor (present infinitive circumvehī, perfect active circumvectus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circum- (“around”) + vehō (“to carry, (passive) to ride, sail”), used as a deponent.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces vehō to Proto-Italic *weχ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ueǵʰ-e/o- (“to carry”), cognate with Sanskrit वहति (váhati, “to carry, convey”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it first: in the Menaechmi a traveller says they have sailed round the Histrians, Spaniards, people of Massilia, Illyrians and all the coasts of Italy, and in the Mostellaria someone has sailed to lonely lands and the farthest shores.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to travel to places in turn or make the round of them, usually by sea, as in Plautus.[2] With an accusative it is to travel round or past: Nepos has someone sailing round the Peloponnese.[2] Lewis & Short add riding round in a carriage or on horseback, and note that it is classical but not used by Cicero.[5] The TLL says it is mostly used of people sailing in ships, and also of ships.[3] Apuleius uses it of the Ocean flowing round past the Pillars of Hercules.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sailing round many coasts.[2]
  • c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of sailing round the Peloponnese.[2]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of the Ocean flowing round.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To travel to in turn, make the round of.[2]
  2. To ride, drive or sail round or past.[2][5][1]
  3. (of the sea) To flow round.[2]

Word family

  • circumvectiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press