Etymologically
Log in

evincio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 07:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈwɪŋ.ki.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈvin̠ʲ.t͡ʃi.o][1]

Forms

ēvinciō (present infinitive ēvincīre, perfect active ēvīnxī, supine ēvīnctum); fourth conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + vinciō (“to bind”).[2][3][1] De Vaan traces vinciō to Proto-Italic *wink- (“to tie, bind”) and Proto-Indo-European *ui-n-k-.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the historian Cassius Hemina, then in prose writers such as Tacitus and Gellius, and in poetry from Virgil on.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly found in the perfect participle, of wreathing or binding round: Virgil's Mnestheus is wreathed in green olive.[2][5][3] The TLL notes that finite forms, in the perfect, occur only twice, both in Tacitus, as when a diadem is bound on Tiridates' head.[3][5] It is also used of fetters, as Ovid's victims led in chains to a grim altar.[2] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 146 BC – Cassius Hemina, the first instance.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a man wreathed in olive.[5][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of victims in chains.[2][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of binding on a diadem.[5][3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bind or wreathe round.[2][5][1]
  2. To bind with fetters.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de