depugno

Forms

dēpugnō (present infinitive dēpugnāre, perfect active dēpugnāvī, supine dēpugnātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + pugnō (“to fight”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists the verb and pūgna (“fight”) among the words related to pūgnus (“fist”), from Proto-Italic *puk/g-n(o)- (“fist”), and compares Ancient Greek πύξ (púx, “with the fist”) and Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist; boxing”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Ennius and Plautus on;^[3] the OLD's earliest example is in Cato's Origines, of a man who went out to fight out of the ranks.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to fight a contest out, in war or in a private quarrel, to do battle: Plautus has armies fighting with standards joined, and Caesar a battle in drawn-up line.^[2][6] Plautus also says that he would rather fight anyone than hunger, and Pliny the Elder uses it of a river that does not fight against its banks.^[2] It is the word for fighting in the arena, as a gladiator or with beasts, as in the Tabula Heracleensis, and Ulpian has it with an accusative, to fight and kill a beast.^[2]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of fighting out of the ranks.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of battles and of fighting hunger.^[2][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian of killing a beast outside the arena.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fight it out, do battle, fight hard.^[2][6][1]
2. To struggle against conditions or forces.^[2]
3. To fight in the arena, as a gladiator or with beasts.^[2]
4. With an accusative, to fight against and kill.^[2]

Word family

• dēpugnātiō

Related words

• pūgnō
• pūgna

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press