coagmento

Forms

coagmentō (present infinitive coagmentāre, perfect active coagmentāvī, supine coagmentātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin coagmentum (“joint”) + -ō.^[2][1][3] That noun is made from cōgō (“to collect, gather”) with ⟨-mentum⟩;^[2][1] Wiktionary notes that the verb comes from ⟨co(n)-⟩ and agō (“to drive”), which may explain the ⟨-a-⟩ of the noun.^[2][1] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL first records it once in Varro,^[3] in a fragment on a board used for stones fitted together.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a technical term of good prose, most frequent in Cicero;^[5] the TLL counts it seven times in Cicero and eight in Vitruvius.^[3] Caesar uses it of beams laid and fastened together in a wall, Vitruvius of tiles joined to one another and of pipes, Seneca of panelled ceilings, Columella of a crack sealed up, and Pliny the Elder of pieces of bark joined together.^[2][5][6][7]

It also meant “to construct by joining”: Cicero says that nature itself takes apart the work it has put together, and that nothing in the soul is compounded or joined;^[2][5][6] Curtius has a garment set with emeralds and gems, and Pliny garlic made up of many cloves.^[2][5][6] Cicero used it figuratively, mostly with quasi or quodam modo, of fitting words together, as Quintilian did after him,^[5][2] and once of a peace that could not be cemented.^[2][7][6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of stones fitted together.^[2][3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of nature's work and of fitting words together.^[2][5][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of beams fastened together.^[2][6][8]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of tiles joined to one another.^[2][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of an orator fitting words together.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To join or fasten together, cement.^[2][5]
2. (of words) To fit together in speech.^[2][5]
3. To make by joining together, construct;^[2][5] (figurative) to conclude (a peace).^[7][6]

Word family

• coagmentātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de