congero

Forms

congerō (present infinitive congerere, perfect active congessī, supine congestum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + gerō (“to carry”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨gerō⟩ to Proto-Italic *ges-e/o- and a stem Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to carry”) built on the root of agō (“to drive”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on.^[3] In the Curculio wax is apicularum operā congestum, “gathered by the work of the little bees”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bring together or collect, and to make by collecting, as Cicero's travel money raised by friends.^[2] Plautus has it of stuffing herbs into the belly.^[2] It is to heap up, as a feast piled up by clients, to build by heaping, to merge into one (Seneca), and to crowd people together, as two legions packed into a corner.^[2] Of words it is to gather arguments or names (Cicero: you have brought together all the workmen), and of other things to heap them up: Martial's woman piles up Greek endearments, and Cicero complains of charges heaped on him.^[2] It is also to shower kisses (Ovid) and to rain missiles (Tacitus).^[2] Lewis and Short call it classical and frequent.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “heap up, collect, construct”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of wax gathered by bees.^[3][2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of collecting money and heaping charges.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of showering kisses.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of raining missiles.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring together, collect, amass.^[2][1][6]
2. To heap up, pile up; to build (by heaping).^[2][1][6]
3. To crowd together.^[2]
4. To compile; to gather (arguments).^[2][1]
5. To heap (honours, charges) on; to shower (kisses, missiles).^[2][1]

Word family

• congeriēs
• congestīcius
• congestim
• congestiō
• congestus
• accongerō

Related words

• gerō
• ingerō

Usage notes

A separate noun congerō, congerōnis, “thief”, occurs in Plautus;^[5][1] Fulgentius explains it as those who gather others' goods to themselves.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c 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