corrigia

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kɔrˈrɪ.ɡi.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [korˈriː.d͡ʒi.a]^[1]

Forms

corrigia f (genitive corrigiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

De Vaan takes it as inherited from Proto-Italic *kom-rig-jo- (“tying together”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hriǵ-(i)o- (“stretching”), the only Latin remnant of the Italo-Celtic compound verbs of *rig- “to stretch, bind”.^[2] The OLD likewise says it is apparently unconnected with corrigō “to correct”.^[3]

Cognate with Old Irish con·rig (“binds together”) and the Middle Irish word for “chain”.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead derives it from that verb, in the sense “to make straight”, with the suffix -ia, as do Lewis and Short.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Varro onwards,^[2][6] and Cicero uses it in his work on divination.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

It was a thong that tied a shoe to the foot, a shoelace, as in Varro, Cicero and Pliny.^[3][5] In Late Latin it was any strap or thong: a whip, the strap of a yoke, and a horse's rein in Diocletian's price edict.^[8][7][5]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a girdle, a barber's strop and a narrow strip of land.^[6] It survives as Italian correggia, French courroie, Spanish correa, Portuguese correia and Romanian curea.^[1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a shoelace.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions a broken shoelace.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shoelace, thong for a shoe.^[3][1]
2. (Late Latin) A strap, thong; a whip; a rein.^[8][7][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A girdle; a strip of land.^[6]

Related words

• corrigō
• rigeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn