Etymologically
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decurro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈkʊr.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈkur.ro][1]

Forms

dēcurrō (present infinitive dēcurrere, perfect active dēcurrī, supine dēcursum); third conjugation[1] The perfect is dēcurrī or dēcucurrī, the latter in Caesar, Livy and Tacitus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from dē- (“down”) and currō (“to run”).[3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨currō⟩ to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἐπίκουρος (epíkouros, “helper”) and perhaps Old English hors (“horse”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use in the OLD is Plautus' Stichus, of a life whose span has been run through (dēcursō aetātis spatiō).[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to run or hurry down, as Caesar's enemies running down from the mountains, of things to rush down, and of liquids to flow down, as Lucretius' molten metals; a road or boundary can run downwards.[3] Of ships and travellers it is to come to land, to go downstream or down to the coast, and Cicero has it of “running down” to the country.[3] It is also to run a race, of a heavenly body to travel its course, and to make straight for a place, as Livy's tribunes.[3]

As a military term it is to perform exercises or manoeuvres, as Livy's soldiers drilled in a quiet camp.[3][1] With an object it is to cover a distance, as Cicero's “seven hundred miles in two days”, and to run through a subject in speaking.[3] With ad it is to have recourse to something, as Cicero's opponent who “so eagerly had recourse to” hostile rights.[3][6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of running through a lifetime.[3][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of flowing down.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of covering a distance and of having recourse.[3][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of running down from the mountains.[3][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of military drill.[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To run or hurry down, (of liquids) to flow down, (of land) to slope down.[3][1]
  2. (of ships, travellers) To come to land; to go downstream.[3]
  3. To run (a race); (of heavenly bodies) to travel one's course; to make straight (for).[3][1]
  4. (military) To manoeuvre, drill.[3][1]
  5. (transitive) To cover (a distance); to run through (a life, a subject).[3][6]
  6. To have recourse (to).[3][6]

Word family

  • dēcursiō
  • decursorius
  • dēcursus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson