flagrum

Forms

flagrum n (genitive flagrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *flagro- (“whip”), perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bhlHg-ro-.^[2] De Vaan connects it with flāgitō (“to demand”), an iterative of an unattested verb meaning “to whip as a punishment”, whence “to scold”; he compares Old Norse blak (“a blow”) and Lithuanian blokšti (“to swing back and forth”), but calls these cognates uncertain.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][4] who has a threat to make someone hot with lashes, faciam ferventem flagris.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a whip or lash used for punishment, and also a stroke of the whip or a flogging.^[3][5] Plautus has “I'll fill you with lashes”, and calls a slave a gymnasium flagrī, a training ground for the whip;^[3][5] Titinius has slaves whose skin is cut up by the lash.^[5] Livy, Suetonius and Juvenal use it, and Juvenal speaks of a man who led the conquered Romans to his whips, that is, to servitude.^[5] Köbler records it in medieval texts from the 8th–9th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of threats of the lash.^[3][5][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.^[5][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal, of servitude.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A whip, scourge, lash.^[3][5][1]
2. A stroke of the whip; a flogging.^[3]

Word family

• flagellum
• flagrifer

Related words

• flāgitō
• flāgitium
• flagritriba

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press