colludo

Forms

collūdō (present infinitive collūdere, perfect active collūsī, supine collūsum); third conjugation, no passive^[1] The spelling conlūdō also occurs.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + lūdō (“to play”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces lūdō to Proto-Italic *loid-e/o- (“to play”) and Proto-Indo-European *loid- (“to let go frequently, play”), probably an o-grade present of frequentative meaning.^[4] Cognate with Middle Irish laídid (“impels”) and Lithuanian léisti (“to let”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Cicero,^[3] who in the Verrines uses it of collusion: nisi tēcum tum collūsisset, “unless he had then been in collusion with you”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to play together or play with: Virgil uses it of feathers playing on the surface of water, Horace of a boy who longs to play with his equals, and Pliny the Elder of elephants performing a war dance together.^[2][6] Lewis and Short call this sense very rare.^[6]

As a legal term it meant to act in collusion, keeping up false appearances with one party to harm another.^[6][2] Petronius has aediles who collude with the bakers on the principle “you look after me, I'll look after you”, and Seneca the Elder and Ulpian use it of collusion between parties.^[2] The TLL counts single passages in Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Petronius, Pliny and the pseudo-Quintilian declamations, four in Seneca the Elder, and more in the jurists and later writers.^[3] English took collude from it in the 1520s.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of collusion.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of feathers playing on the water.^[2][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a boy playing with his equals.^[2][8]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of aediles colluding with bakers.^[2][8]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it as a legal term.^[2][8]
• 1520s – English borrows it as collude.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To play together, play with.^[2][6]
2. (law) To act in collusion, have a secret understanding with someone to the harm of a third party.^[2][6]

Word family

• colludium
• collūsim
• collūsiō
• collūsor

Related words

• English collude

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 l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de