constipo

Forms

cōnstīpō (present infinitive cōnstīpāre, perfect active cōnstīpāvī, supine cōnstīpātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + stīpō (“to compress, surround”).^[2][1][3] Stīpō goes back to Proto-Italic *stei/īpo- and Proto-Indo-European *steip-o- (“stiff, erect”);^[4] de Vaan takes it to be based on an adjective meaning “erect, rigid” and compares Lithuanian stìpti (“to stiffen, grow rigid”) and Old English stīf.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in a speech on the agrarian law, arguing that so many people could not even be crowded together on the Campanian land.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare:^[5] Caesar uses it of the enemy crowding together right under a rampart.^[2][5] Late Latin examples in the TLL include Ammianus Marcellinus of people crushed by falling rubble, in Vegetius of soldiers packed too closely to fight, and in the Vulgate.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it also meant to surround or throng around someone, and in medicine to stop up, with the passive used of suffering from constipation.^[6][1] English took constipate partly from its past participle in the 1530s, and costive came through Old French costivé.^[7] The TLL records a Provençal descendant, costubar.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of crowding people onto the Campanian land.^[2][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of an enemy crowding under a rampart.^[2][8]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of people crushed under rubble.^[3][8]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it of soldiers packed too closely.^[3][8]
• 1530s – English constipate is formed partly from its past participle.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To crowd or press closely together.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) To surround, throng around.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin, medicine) To stop up; in the passive, to be constipated.^[6][1]

Word family

• cōnstīpātiō

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. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de