expergiscor

Forms

expergīscor (present infinitive expergīscī, perfect active experrēctus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1] An active form expergīscō also occurs.^[2][3] Plautus has the infinitive expergīscier.^[4][3]

Etymology

The etymology is disputed.^[5] De Vaan favours the view that it is from Latin ex- + per- + regō (“to direct”), “to move on up, wake up”, since the participle ⟨experrēctus⟩ contains that of the verb and there is a compound pergō (“to move on”); he thinks ⟨-īscor⟩ replaced an older ⟨*-ēscor⟩ after the verbs in ⟨-īscō⟩, as expergēfaciō suggests.^[5][1] That verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h3reǵ-e/o- (“to stretch, direct”).^[5] Others, followed by Klingenschmitt and LIV, derive it from Proto-Indo-European *h1ǵr-iske/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *h1ǵer- (“to wake up”), comparing an Avestan participle meaning “waking up”;^[5][1] Wiktionary also compares Ancient Greek ἐγείρω (egeírō, “to awaken”).^[5][1] The OLD and Lewis & Short derive it from expergō, which de Vaan, after Keller, takes for a recent formation grafted on this verb.^[2][4][5] The TLL notes an older participle ⟨-pergitus⟩, and Priscian says the oldest writers still used it.^[3] Festus explained ⟨experrēctus⟩ from stretching oneself, as we do fresh from sleep.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] in whose Miles Gloriosus someone is told to keep watch and wake up, for it is light.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to wake up, to awake from sleep: Cicero writes, if you are asleep, wake up.^[2][4] Figuratively it is to rouse or bestir oneself: in Plautus someone had better bestir himself and contrive a trick, Cicero says the nobility awoke and recovered the state by arms, and Sallust asks, why do you not wake up?^[2][4] The Vulgate uses it in Joel.^[4] The participle experrēctus is used as an adjective, alert, as of bees in Columella.^[4] Plautus has an old infinitive expergīscier, and Pomponius an active form.^[4][3] Church Latin glosses it awaken, wake up.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of waking up.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of waking from sleep and of an awakened nobility.^[4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Columella of alert bees.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To awake, wake up.^[2][4][1][6]
2. To rouse or bestir oneself.^[2][4]

Related words

• expergēfaciō
• regō
• pergō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson