Etymologically
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conturbo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔnˈtʊr.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [konˈtur.bo][1]

Forms

conturbō (present infinitive conturbāre, perfect active conturbāvī, supine conturbātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + turbō (“to disturb”).[2][1][3] The verb turbō is formed from turba (“commotion, crowd”), whose origin is uncertain.[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Thesaurus finds it from Plautus on,[3] whose Casina jokes that two people “will mix up their feet”, that is, sleep together.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to mix up, confound or throw into disorder, also of an organ of the body put out of order.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is most frequent in Lucretius.[5] Of people it is to dismay or perturb, as Cicero's “what is it? am I upsetting you?”[2] Used absolutely it is a business term, to go bankrupt or default, as in Cicero's letters.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “disturb, trouble, disquiet, vex, confuse”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of mixing up.[2][3][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, who uses it most.[5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of dismay and of bankruptcy.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To confuse, confound, throw into disorder.[2][5][1]
  2. To dismay, disturb, disquiet.[2][1]
  3. To go bankrupt, default.[2][1]

Word family

  • conturbātiō
  • conturbātor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de