Etymologically
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congero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔŋ.ɡɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔn̠ʲ.d͡ʒe.ro][1]

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

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