Etymologically
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congrego

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔŋ.ɡrɛ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔŋ.ɡre.ɡo][1]

Forms

congregō (present infinitive congregāre, perfect active congregāvī, supine congregātum); first conjugation[1] Lucretius splits it in tmesis, conque gregantur.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + grex (“flock, herd”), with the verb ending ⟨-ō⟩,[2][4] as aggregō is formed with ad-.[4] The noun grex goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷreg- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷreg- (“group, herd”).[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek γάργαρα (gárgara, “heaps, lots”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Thesaurus finds it from Varro and Cicero on;[4] Cicero's De inventione has the man who brought scattered people together in one place.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense, to gather animals into a flock, is rare and mostly in Pliny the Elder, who has swarms of bees gathering.[3][4] Usually it is to bring people together into a community or a group, as Cicero's animals that live alone or in herds, and to associate with others;[2][3] Cicero's proverb “equals most readily flock together with equals” is in the Cato Maior.[2][3] It also means to collect things, as Vitruvius' air that gathers moisture into clouds, to group persons together in speech, and to concentrate a force.[2]

It is frequent in Church writers, with about 400 examples in the Vulgate.[4] Church Latin glosses it “gather together, assemble, congregate”.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro.[4][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of bringing people together.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius in tmesis.[2][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of bees swarming.[3][7]
  • mid-15th century – Its participle gives English congregate.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To gather into a flock or herd; passive, to swarm, flock together.[2][3][1]
  2. To bring together, assemble, collect; passive, to associate with.[2][3][1]
  3. To collect things; to group together; to concentrate.[2]

Word family

  • congregābilis
  • congregālis
  • congregatim
  • congregātiō
  • congregātīvus
  • congregator
  • congregatus
  • congregus
  • grex
  • aggregō
  • English congregate

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ 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
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com