Etymologically
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conqueror

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔŋ.kʷɛ.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔŋ.kʷe.ror][1]

Forms

conqueror (present infinitive conquerī, perfect active conquestus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + queror (“to complain”).[2][3][1] The verb queror goes back to Proto-Italic *kwes-e/o-;[4] Walde–Hofmann, Pokorny and the LIV derive it from Proto-Indo-European *kʷes- (“to hiss”), through “to sigh”, which de Vaan calls possible but not compelling.[4] On that view it is cognate with Sanskrit श्वसिति (śvásiti, “to hiss, snort”) and Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] whose miser in the Aulularia “wails and complains in grief” and says “I bewail my poverty”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to utter a complaint or lament, and transitively to complain of or bewail something.[2] Cicero quotes a line of Pacuvius that it is fitting to complain of misfortune, but not to wail over it.[5] Lewis & Short note that it is used in classical prose and poetry, of strong or prolonged lament.[5]

Church Latin glosses it “complain, bewail”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of lament and of bewailing poverty.[2][4][7]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of complaining of misfortune.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To complain, lament.[2][5][1]
  2. To complain of, bewail.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • conquestiō
  • conquestus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de