flagello

Forms

flagellō (present infinitive flagellāre, perfect active flagellāvī, supine flagellātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flagellum (“whip, lash”) with the first-conjugation verbal suffix -ō.^[2][1] The noun is itself formed from flagrum (“whip”),^[3][1] which goes back to Proto-Italic *flagro- (“whip”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰlHg-ro-.^[3] De Vaan connects flagrum with flāgitō (“to demand urgently”), which he takes to have meant first “to whip someone as a punishment”, and compares Old Norse blaka (“to hit back and forth”) and Lithuanian blokšti (“to swing back and forth”); he considers the reconstruction of the root not certain enough.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest citation in the OLD is in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where a tree groans as its trunk is lashed by a tail: ima parte flagellari gemuit sua robora caudae (“it groaned that its trunk was lashed at the base by the tail”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly a word of poetry and of prose after Augustus.^[4] It meant to whip or scourge someone, as Suetonius' Caligula has a quaestor flogged,^[2][4] and Seneca speaks of evil deeds being lashed by conscience.^[2] It was also used of anything that strikes repeatedly like a whip, of threshing grain, and of hair beating against the neck.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder and Martial used it of money or prices kept “whipped up”, and Persius of usury.^[2][4]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to scourge or chastise,^[5][6] and medieval writers used it for the judicial flogging of people and for threshing with a flail.^[6] English borrowed the past participle in flagellate in the 1620s.^[7]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a tail lashing a tree.^[2][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of evil deeds being scourged by conscience.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of threshing and of keeping prices high.^[2][4][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of Caligula flogging a quaestor.^[2][8]
• 1620s – English borrows its past participle as flagellate.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scourge, whip, flog.^[2][4]
2. To strike repeatedly as with a whip, lash or beat against; to thresh grain.^[2][4]
3. To shake like a whip; to lash out with the arm.^[2]
4. (figurative) To keep prices or money constantly rising, “whip up”.^[2][4]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To scourge, chastise.^[5][6]

Word family

• flagellatio

Related words

• flagrum
• flagito

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de