convulnero

Forms

convulnerō (present infinitive convulnerāre, perfect active convulnerāvī, supine convulnerātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled convolnerō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + vulnerō (“to wound”), with the prefix strengthening the verb.^[2][4][1] vulnerō is made from vulnus (“wound”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the Bellum Africum and in the elder Seneca, of an army being badly wounded at the first encounter and of many being wounded with javelins.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan.^[3] It is used of people and animals, as in Seneca, Curtius' pack animals wounded so they could not follow, and Pliny the Elder of bees.^[3][4] Celsus uses it of cutting the edge of a wound with a hook, Columella of damaging a vine bud in pruning, and Frontinus of perforating a water channel.^[2] Apuleius has it figuratively of Cupid wounding Jupiter's heart,^[4] and the Vulgate in Job of being wounded in the loins.^[4]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of cutting in surgery.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of damaging a vine.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, in Job.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wound severely, inflict many wounds on.^[2][3][1]
2. To damage by cutting; to bore, perforate (a water pipe).^[2][1]

Related words

• vulnerō
• vulnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de