Etymologically
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compungo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔmˈpʊŋ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [komˈpuŋ.ɡo][1]

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