Etymologically
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compressus

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compressus1 compressed, close

Forms

compressus (feminine compressa, neuter compressum, comparative compressior, superlative compressimus, adverb compressē); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The participle is from Latin comprimō (“to press together”), its perfect passive participle,[1][2] used as an adjective; the verb is formed from con- and premō (“to press”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, in his book on farming, uses it of the narrow jaws of good sheep.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means constricted or narrow;[2] in Celsus it is a medical word for costive bowels and for an ailment that binds them.[2][1] Cicero has the comparative adverb compressius for the more compact style of the dialecticians, against the broader one of the rhetoricians.[5]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of narrow jaws.[2][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of costive bowels.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Pressed together, constricted, narrow.[2][1]
  2. (medicine) Costive (of the bowels); causing constipation.[2][1]

compressus2 pressure; embrace

Forms

compressus m (genitive compressūs); fourth declension[1][2] It is found only in the nominative and ablative singular.[5][2]

Etymology

The noun is from Latin comprimō (“to press together; to embrace”) + -tus, an action noun of the fourth declension.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, who in the Amphitruo says that Jupiter made Alcmena pregnant by his embrace.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it is the embrace or sexual intercourse of a man;[2][6] Nonius notes that Plautus also used it of intercourse with a courtesan.[5] Cicero uses it in the general sense of pressure, of the earth pressing the seed, and Pliny the Elder of the closing of wings.[2][6] It is close in meaning to compressiō.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a sexual embrace.[3][2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pressure.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Compression, pressure, pressing together.[2][6]
  2. Sexual intercourse, embrace (of a man).[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press