compesco

Forms

compescō (present infinitive compescere, perfect active compescuī, supine compescitum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled conpescō.^[2] Priscian gives a supine compescitum.^[3]

Etymology

It goes back to ⟨*comparc-scō⟩, an inchoative of con- and parcō (“to spare, refrain”), compare compercō (“to save up”);^[2][1] medial ⟨a⟩ was reduced to ⟨e⟩ and the cluster ⟨-rcsc-⟩ simplified to ⟨-sc-⟩.^[1] De Vaan finds no agreed etymology for ⟨parcō⟩; one view derives it from Proto-Italic *pe-arke/o-, “to hold off”, from the root of arceō (“to keep off”), Proto-Indo-European *h₂erk- (“to hold”).^[4] Lewis and Short connected it with compēs (“fetter”), and Döderlein with pedica (“fetter”).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD cites Plautus' Poenulus and Bacchides among its first examples.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to confine or restrain, as Horace's river of the underworld that “confines” Geryon and Tityos, to hold in physically, as Propertius' girl who cannot restrain her eyes, and to close an entrance.^[2] Virgil uses it of checking the growth of vines by pruning and of arresting a disease with the knife, and Ovid of quenching fire with fire.^[2] It is to steady or calm, to check any activity, as Ovid's “cautious fear checks my duty”, to control a person, and to subdue an enemy.^[2]

Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic or post-Augustan and absent from Cicero.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “restrain, withhold, fasten together”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of pruning and of checking disease.^[2][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of confining.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of quenching fire.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To confine, restrain; to close, block.^[2][1][6]
2. To check (growth, fire, disease); to prune.^[2][1]
3. To calm, steady; to check, curb (an activity, a person).^[2][1]
4. To subdue, quell (an enemy).^[2]

Related words

• parcō
• compercō
• coerceō
• reprimō

Usage notes

Döderlein says that coerceō restrains by power and superior strength, compescō by authority and wisdom.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de