foro

Forms

forō (present infinitive forāre, perfect active forāvī, supine forātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *foraje/o-, which de Vaan explains as an iterative verb Proto-Indo-European *bʰorH-(i-) (“to pierce many times, bore”), since verbs of this root show the same o-grade in other branches; the final laryngeal would then have become a vowel in Latin.^[2] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny took it instead as a verb made from a noun, which de Vaan finds conceivable, and he also allows a noun *bʰorH-h₂- (“hole”) as its base.^[2] Wiktionary likewise derives it from the root *bʰerH- and leaves the exact pre-form open.^[1] The OLD compares feriō (“to strike”) and English bore.^[3]

Cognate with Lithuanian bárti (“to scold, accuse, forbid”), Latvian bãrti (“to scold, blame”), Old Norse berja (“to beat, hit”) and Old High German berjan (“to hit, pound, knead”), the last two from Proto-Germanic *barjan-.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD find it first in Plautus,^[2][3] whose Mostellaria threatens someone that he will be pierced with goads through the streets: ita tē forābunt patibulātum per viās stimulīs, “so they will prick you with goads along the roads, tied to the cross-bar”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to bore through or pierce something;^[3][4] Lewis and Short call the verb rare and mostly post-Augustan.^[4] Columella speaks of bored trees and uses it for making holes by boring, such as holes in hives too small to take more than one swarm.^[3][4] Macrobius has ears that are well pierced.^[4]

The TLL notes that it lives on in the Romance languages, as in Italian forare and Portuguese forar.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for piercing with goads.^[3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of bored trees and of boring holes in beehives.^[3][4][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius uses it of pierced ears.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bore through, pierce, perforate.^[3][4]
2. To make (holes) by boring.^[3]

Word family

• circumforō
• forābilis
• forāgō
• forāmen
• foratus
• inforō
• perforō
• superforō
• transforō
• multiforātilis

Related words

• feriō

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. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de