expurgo

Forms

expūrgō (present infinitive expūrgāre, perfect active expūrgāvī, supine expūrgātum); first conjugation^[1] A longer form expūrigō has been restored for the metre in two places of Plautus.^[2][3] The supine expūrgātū occurs in Terence.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + pūrgō (“to cleanse”).^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[4] reflexively, of clearing oneself of blame: in the Captivi a speaker wishes to clear himself before another.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense of clearing from blame, justifying, continued in Terence, Sallust and Tacitus, who has a man asking for the charges and declaring he would answer them.^[2][7][6]

The physical sense, to cleanse or purify, appears in Varro, who speaks of weeding crops, and in Columella of cleaning grain, vines and wounds and of purging animals.^[2][4][6] Horace asks what hemlock could ever purge him enough, and Pliny the Elder uses it of clearing skin diseases.^[7][3] Cicero says that speech must be purged of faults.^[7][6] The Vulgate has expurgate vetus fermentum, “purge out the old leaven”.^[7] It continues in Italian spurgare and Provençal espurgar.^[4] English expurgate (1620s) comes from its participle or from expurgation, and the plant name spurge comes from it through Old French espurgier, from the plant's purgative properties.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of clearing oneself.^[4][6][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the same sense.^[7][2][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of weeding crops.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of purging speech.^[7][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a cure by hemlock.^[7][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of grain, wounds and livestock.^[4][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of purging out old leaven.^[7][8]
• late 14th century – English spurge comes from it through Old French.^[5]
• 1620s – English expurgate is formed from it.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cleanse, purify, free from dirt.^[2][7]
2. (medicine) To purge (people or animals); to clean (wounds).^[2][4]
3. To clear away (unwanted matter).^[2][7]
4. To clear from blame, justify, excuse;^[2][7] (reflexive) to clear oneself.^[2][7]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To drive out, purge.^[9]

Word family

• expūrgātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson