Etymology and origin of the Latin word contrudo
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 96–55 BC, Lucretius
- Ultimate origin
- Latin (trūdō)
Etymology tree
Forms
contrūdō (present infinitive contrūdere, perfect active contrūsī, supine contrūsum); third conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin con- + trūdō (“to push, thrust”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *treude/o- and Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, thrust”), and compares Welsh cythrudd (“to vex”), Lithuanian triū̃sas (“work, effort, pains”) and Old Norse þrjóta (“to lack”).[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
The earliest examples in Lewis and Short and the TLL are in Lucretius,[5][3][6] who uses it of the force of the wind driving clouds together and of the current that seems to thrust a horse's body upstream.[5][7]
Semantic evolution
Lewis and Short describe it as mostly pre-classical.[5] Lucretius also uses it of bodies lying heaped together deep in the huts, penitusque casa contrusa iacebant corpora.[5][7] It is used of cramming or stowing things away: Varro of pressing grapes into jars,[5][8] Cicero of people crowded into the baths.[5][8] Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a person thrust off to an island.[8][5]
Timeline
- 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of clouds and bodies crowded together.[5][6]
- 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of pressing grapes into jars.[5][6]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of crowding people into the baths.[5][6]
- c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of thrusting someone away to an island.[8][6]
Meanings
Verb
- To thrust or drive in a given direction; to crowd together.[2][5]
- To thrust away into a container or place, cram, stow.[2][7]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
Cite this entry
“Contrudo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/contrudo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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