eluctor

Forms

ēlū̆ctor (present infinitive ēlū̆ctārī, perfect active ēlū̆ctātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + luctor (“to wrestle, struggle”).^[2][1] De Vaan explains the simple verb, with some doubt, as a frequentative built on a past participle Proto-Italic *lukto-, from Proto-Indo-European *lug-to- (“bent”), and compares Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “withy, twigs”); if this is right, he finds it striking that the vowel shows no trace of lengthening.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short think it was perhaps not used before Augustus.^[4] The earliest quotation in the OLD is from Virgil's Georgics, of water that will force its way out and pass in large drops through wicker.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Livy uses it transitively, of struggling clear of so many strong bands of men;^[2][4] Silius has it of crossing the Alps, and Tacitus of men struggling through snow and of overcoming the difficulties of the ground as well as the enemy's courage.^[2][4] Seneca uses it of the Nile forcing its way through narrows, and figuratively of having struggled out of a humble birth.^[2][5] Tacitus speaks of a man whose words usually seemed to come out with a struggle.^[2][4][6]

Statius has a voice breaking through a frenzy.^[2][4] The TLL notes that the past participle is the form most used, and records an active ēluctō.^[7] Medieval writers used it of bursting out, wrenching oneself free, struggling against something, and figuratively of striving.^[8]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of water forcing its way out.^[2][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it transitively.^[2][9]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the Nile and of a humble birth overcome.^[2][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of snow, rough ground and halting words.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To struggle clear of, force one's way through or over;^[2][4] (figurative) to surmount, overcome (difficulties).^[2][4]
2. To force (a way) out or up.^[2][4]
3. (intransitive) To force one's way out or up, struggle out.^[2][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) To wrench oneself free; to strive.^[8]

Word family

• ēlū̆ctābilis
• inēlū̆ctābilis

Related words

• luctor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de