Etymologically
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cogo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkoː.ɡoː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔː.ɡo][1]

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

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