Etymologically
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corrigia

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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]
  • 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