Etymologically
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erogo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈeː.rɔ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.ro.ɡo][1]

Forms

ērogō (present infinitive ērogāre, perfect active ērogāvī, supine ērogātum); first conjugation[1] Festus has exrogāre.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + rogō (“to ask”).[2][1] Lewis & Short explain it as a term of public law, to pay out money from the treasury after asking the people's consent.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero asks Vatinius whether he paid out money from the treasury under his own laws.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to pay out or expend public money, originally after a rogātiō had been passed;[2][3] Livy uses it too.[2][3] It is then any spending, and the use of something for a purpose: Valerius Maximus has a man always busier paying out money than getting it, and figuratively one giving up his life for his parents.[2][1] In Frontinus it is said of water distributed from an aqueduct.[2][1] Apuleius uses it of begging alms at the crossroads, and Festus defines it as removing something from an old law by a new one.[2] Church Latin glosses it distribute, pay out, bequeath.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of public money.[2][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.[3]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of begging alms.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pay out, disburse, expend public money; to spend; to use for a purpose.[2][3][1][4]
  2. To deliver water from a reservoir or aqueduct.[2][1]
  3. To obtain by entreaty; to prevail on by entreaty.[2][1]
  4. To remove a provision of an old law by a new law.[2]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To distribute; to bequeath.[4]

Word family

  • ērogātiō
  • ērogātor
  • superērogō
  • ērogātōrius

References

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