Etymologically
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collido

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔlˈliː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kolˈliː.do][1]

Forms

collīdō (present infinitive collīdere, perfect active collīsī, supine collīsum); third conjugation[1] Manuscripts often spell it conl-.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + laedō (“to hurt, strike”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.[4][2][1][5] De Vaan finds no certain cognates for laedō;[6] Etymonline calls it of unknown origin.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's first citations are Lucretius and Cicero's De natura deorum, of moisture that is easily pressed and squeezed together.[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it rare and mostly post-Augustan, most frequent in Quintilian.[3] It means to batter or crush: Cicero speaks of silver vessels crushed out of shape, and Celsus of something ruptured and crushed inside the body.[4] It also means to dash together: Sallust has waves dashed together that seem to bark, and Seneca tells someone to strike their hands together.[4] Quintilian uses collīdere manūs for clapping, and the passive of the teeth chattering.[3][4] Figuratively it means to bring into conflict: Horace speaks of Greece embroiled with the barbarians in a long war,[4] and Quintilian uses it of consonants that clash.[4] Stelten gives "strike together, bruise, crush" for Church Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius.[3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of crushed silver vessels.[4]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of waves dashed together.[4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of Greece embroiled with the barbarians.[4]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of clapping and clashing consonants.[3][4]
  • 1620s – collide appears in English.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To batter, crush, deform.[4][7]
  2. To dash or strike together;[4][3][1] (of the hands) to clap;[4][3][1] (passive, of teeth) to chatter.[4][3][1]
  3. (figurative) To bring into conflict;[4][1] (passive) to be at variance;[4][1] (of letters) to clash.[4][1]

Word family

  • collīsiō
  • collīsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson