confercio

Forms

cōnferciō (present infinitive cōnfercīre, perfect active cōnfersī, supine cōnfertum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + farciō (“to stuff, cram”).^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan lists ⟨confercīre⟩ “to pack closely together” among the derivatives of the simple verb, which goes back to Proto-Italic *fark-je- (“to stuff”).^[5] He sees only one conceivable cognate, Ancient Greek φράσσω (phrássō, “to fence in”), which does not quite fit in meaning, and allows that the root may not be Indo-European.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Varro on.^[5] Varro writes of bees that pack themselves together, licking one another, and Lucretius has the wind cramming clouds together.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short find the finite verb very rare; the perfect participle, used as the adjective confertus “crowded, dense”, is the classical form.^[6][3] Pliny the Elder has myrrh packed into bags, and Tacitus has infantry drawn up in close order and a structure densely filled.^[2][6] Apuleius uses it of raising a shout all together.^[2]

The grammarian Priscian gives the perfect ⟨confersi⟩ and the supine ⟨confertum⟩.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to cram together.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of wind cramming clouds together.^[2][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of bees packing themselves together.^[2][5][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder has myrrh packed into bags.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of troops in close order.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a shout raised together.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pack closely together, cram, stuff.^[2][6]
2. To fill densely.^[2]
3. To raise (a shout) in unison.^[2]

Word family

• cōnfertim

Related words

• confertus
• farciō

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 k l 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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de