Etymologically
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efflagito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛfˈfɫaː.ɡɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [efˈflaː.d͡ʒi.to][1]

Forms

efflāgitō (present infinitive efflāgitāre, perfect active efflāgitāvī, supine efflāgitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + flāgitō (“to demand”).[2][3][1] De Vaan takes flāgitō as an iterative of a lost verb meaning to whip, from Proto-Italic *flāg-e/o- (“to whip”): whipping someone as a punishment became scolding, and so demanding.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on,[3] who uses it of a letter.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to ask for something insistently or imperiously, to demand:[2][5] Cicero uses it of a letter, of a tribune's power demanded by the people's longing for the courts.[5] Quintilian uses it of books asked for urgently.[5] In the Verrines it apparently means to importune a person, as the boy's mother and grandmother did.[2] Cicero and Quintilian have short perfect forms such as efflāgitāsset and efflāgitāstī.[3] Stelten glosses it "entreat".[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of demanding a letter.[5][3]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of books asked for urgently.[5][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To ask for insistently, demand urgently, entreat.[2][5][1][6]
  2. To importune (a person).[2]

Word family

  • efflāgitātiō
  • efflāgitātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson