conspergo

Forms

cōnspergō (present infinitive cōnspergere, perfect active cōnspersī, supine cōnspersum); third conjugation^[1] Also spelled cōnspargō, the form in Cato, Varro, Vitruvius, Phaedrus, Columella and Apuleius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + spargō (“to scatter, sprinkle”).^[2][1][3] spargō goes back to Proto-Italic *sparg- and Proto-Indo-European *sp(e)r-g- (“to strew”), and de Vaan compares Hittite išpār-i “to spread out, strew” and Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō, “to strew, sow”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on,^[4] who writes vino has conspersi fores, “I have sprinkled these doors with wine”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to cover with drops or particles, to besprinkle or strew, and also to sprinkle a liquid: Cato tells the cook to sprinkle a cake with flour, and Cicero recalls someone who embraced him and wet him with tears.^[2][5] Suetonius has roads swept and sprinkled because of the dust.^[2][5]

Figuratively it means to intersperse or bespatter: Cicero says the head of Taurus is strewn with stars, and that a speech should be sprinkled with flowers of words and thoughts, an image Lewis and Short take from flowers.^[2][5] He also uses it of a life spattered with the stains of disgrace.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the senses strew, sprinkle and spatter.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has vino has conspersi fores.^[2][4][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in recipes.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has meadows strewn with flowers.^[2][5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of stars and of ornaments of style.^[2][5][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius has roads sprinkled against dust.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sprinkle, besprinkle, strew or moisten; to sprinkle a liquid.^[2][5][6]
2. (figurative) To intersperse, diversify; to bespatter.^[2][5]

Word family

• cōnspersiō

Related words

• spargō
• aspergō¹
• dispergō
• respergō

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 m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de