Etymologically
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discurro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪsˈkʊr.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [disˈkur.ro][1]

Forms

discurrō (present infinitive discurrere, perfect active discurrī, supine discursum); third conjugation[1] Besides discurrī the reduplicated perfect discucurrī is found in Livy, the elder Seneca and Suetonius.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + currō (“to run”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces ⟨currō⟩ to Proto-Italic *korse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”), cognate with Old Irish carr (“vehicle”) and with the Gaulish source of Latin carrus.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is Caesar, who describes the armed citizens running about on the walls.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “to run off in different directions”, and also “to run about, to and fro”: Ovid has Pan delighting to run about the high mountains.[2] It is said of things that spread in different directions, as Virgil's Nile running out through seven mouths, and of the mind or a speaker branching out or ranging over a subject.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “run to and fro”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of people running about.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the Nile branching out.[2][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of running about and of the mind divided.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To run off in several directions, disperse; to run about, to and fro, roam.[2][3][1][6]
  2. Of things, to run or extend in different directions.[2]
  3. Of the mind or a speaker, to branch out; to range over a subject.[2]

Word family

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de