fastigo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [fasˈtiː.ɡoː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [fasˈtiː.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

fastīgō (present infinitive fastīgāre, perfect active fastīgāvī, supine fastīgātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Italic *farstīg-, with a noun Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥s-tí- (“top, point”).^[2][1] Cognate with Old High German burst (“bristle”), Old English byrst (“bristle”) and Sanskrit भृष्टि (bhṛṣṭí, “point”), and the root without suffix is in Old Irish barr (“top”).^[2][3] Ernout and Meillet took it as a back-formation from fastīgātus (“pointed”), but since fastīgium “point, top” is older, Leumann derived the verb from the noun, as the OLD does.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Caesar, who describes a roof made to slope to a point.^[2][4] Köbler dates Caesar about 50 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to make pointed, taper, as Caesar's sloping roof, and to make slope, as his hill sloping gently back to the plain.^[4] The participle fastīgātus “sloping, pointed” is the Classical form, and Lewis and Short say the finite verb is post-Augustan.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a sloping roof and hill.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make pointed, taper.^[4]
2. To make slope.^[4]

Word family

• fastīgātiō
• fastīgium

Related words

• fastīgiātus
• fastus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press