cogo

Forms

cōgō (present infinitive cōgere, perfect active coēgī, supine coāctum); third conjugation^[1] An inscription of the Arval Brethren has COGVIT for cōgit.^[2]

Etymology

It is contracted from ⟨*co-agō⟩, formed from Latin con- + agō (“to drive”), “drive together”.^[3][4][2][1] The simple verb continues Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- (“to do, act”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”).^[5] Compare Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to drive, lead”) and Sanskrit अजति (ájati, “drives”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has ut sibi latrōnēs cōgerem et cōnscrīberem, “to collect and enlist mercenaries for him”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “to drive together”: cattle (Tītyre, cōge pecus “Tityrus, round up the flock”), people, and troops, so “to assemble, muster”, “to raise” an army or fleet and “to convene” the senate or an assembly.^[3] It is used of gathering crops and collecting money, and agmen cōgere is “to bring up the rear”.^[3] From “bring into a mass” come “to compress, condense, abridge”, “to thicken, curdle, congeal” and “to full” cloth.^[3]

Applied to persons it means “to drive” somewhere, “to reduce” to a condition (in ōrdinem cōgere “to bring to order”) and above all “to compel, force”, of people and of circumstances (necessitāte cōgī).^[3][2] In argument it means “to prove conclusively”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of raising mercenaries and of compulsion (nisi necessitāte cōgar).^[3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of collecting money: quasi talenta ad quīndecim coēgī.^[3][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of gathering olives.^[3][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar: coāctīs omnibus cōpiīs, “with all his forces assembled”.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: Tītyre, cōge pecus.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive together, round up (cattle, people).^[3][2]
2. To assemble, muster (troops);^[3] to raise (an army, fleet).^[3] agmen cōgere, to bring up the rear.^[3]
3. To summon, convene (the senate, an assembly).^[3]
4. To gather (crops);^[3] to collect (money, taxes).^[3]
5. To bring together, concentrate.^[3]
6. To compress;^[3] to condense, abridge.^[3]
7. To thicken, curdle, congeal;^[3] to full (cloth), felt (wool).^[3]
8. To reduce (to a condition);^[3] in ōrdinem cōgere, to bring to order.^[3]
9. To drive, force to go.^[3]
10. To compel, force, constrain.^[3][2][7]
11. To prove conclusively.^[3]

Word family

• coactim
• coactiō
• coāctō
• coāctor
• coactūra
• coāctus
• coagmentum
• coāgulum
• incoactus
• recogo

Related words

• agō
• agmen

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes cōgere, to compel by force and power, from adigere, to bring someone to something by reflection and motives.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper