Etymologically
Log in

evulgo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 23:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈwʊɫ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈvul.ɡo][1]

Forms

ēvulgō (present infinitive ēvulgāre, perfect active ēvulgāvī, supine ēvulgātum); first conjugation[1] Also spelled ēvolgō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + vulgō2 (“to make public”).[2][1][4] That verb is formed on vulgus (“the common people”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wolgo- or Proto-Italic *welgos-, with no further etymology.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short find it only from the Augustan age on, and rarely.[3] Its first author is Livy, who tells how Flavius made public the civil law kept hidden in the inner rooms of the pontiffs and posted the calendar on a white board around the Forum.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to bring something out among the people, to make it known: Livy also has it with an accusative and infinitive, of people spreading the news that prisoners had been discussed.[4][6] Tacitus uses it of a secret of empire that was out, that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome, of the wrongs done to Octavia, and of a proclamation he had worded in a certain way.[4][3][7] In Tacitus' evulgātus pudor it means to expose one's sense of shame to the public, to prostitute it.[7][8][6] Church Latin kept the sense “to make known, publish”.[9]

Wiktionary lists the English words evulgate and evulge and French évulguer among its descendants.[1]

Timeline

  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of Flavius making the civil law public.[4][10]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a secret of empire becoming known.[4][10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make public, divulge, publish.[2][3][7]
  2. To expose to the public, prostitute (one's sense of shame).[7][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de