compungo

Forms

compungō (present infinitive compungere, perfect active compūnxī, supine compūnctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + pungō (“to prick, sting”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces pungō to a nasal present Proto-Italic *pung- (“to pierce, sting”), from Proto-Indo-European *pu-n(e)-g/k-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it of a beard that pricks the lips like bristles: quasi saetīs labra mihi compungit barba.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Classical use was literal and rare: to prick or puncture, as with a needle or nettle stings,^[6][2] and to mark with points, to tattoo, as in Cicero's barbarian “marked with Thracian brands”.^[2][6] Lucretius uses it of colours that sting the eye, and Cicero of logicians who prick themselves with their own subtleties.^[6] It also meant to goad or stimulate the mind.^[2]

In Late Latin the passive compungī meant to be stung by conscience, to feel remorse, from Lactantius and Sulpicius Severus on;^[6] the noun compūnctiō belongs with this sense.^[6] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “to feel remorse, grieve for, be conscience-struck” beside the literal senses.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a beard's bristles pricking the lips.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of tattoo marks.^[2][5]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses the passive for being stung by conscience.^[6][5]
• c. 363–c. 420 AD – Sulpicius Severus uses it in the same sense.^[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prick, puncture all over, sting.^[2][6]
2. To goad, stimulate.^[2]
3. To mark with points, tattoo, brand.^[2][6]
4. (Late Latin, passive) To feel remorse, be stung by conscience.^[6][7]

Word family

• compūnctiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson