erunco

Forms

ēruncō (present infinitive ēruncāre, perfect active ēruncāvī, supine ēruncātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ex- + runcō (“to weed”).^[2][3] runcō goes back to Proto-Italic *runk-ā- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ru-n-k- (“to dig out”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Columella uses it in his work on farming, of weeding out plants and of clearing garden beds of weeds.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Glossaries explain it with ērādīcō (“to root out”).^[3] In medieval Latin it was used for clearing a place of trees and scrub for building, and also figuratively for destroying or rooting out.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of weeding.^[2][5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grub up, uproot (weeds).^[2][5]
2. To clear (ground) of weeds.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) To clear (land) of trees;^[7] (figuratively) to eradicate.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de