Etymologically
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flagrum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫa.ɡrũː], [ˈfɫaɡ.rũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈflaː.ɡrum], [ˈflaɡ.rum][1]

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

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