frico

Forms

fricō (present infinitive fricāre, perfect active fricuī, supine frictum or fricātum); first conjugation^[1] The participle is frictus or, more rarely, fricātus; the perfect fricuī later also appears as fricāvī.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The OLD compares friō (“to crumble”),^[2] and de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb: it presupposes an adjective Proto-Italic *friko-, probably built secondarily beside *frio-, from Proto-Indo-European *bhriH-o- (“cut”).^[4] De Vaan compares Sanskrit भ्रीणन्ति (bhrīṇánti, “to cut”) and Old Irish brieid (“to hurt, damage”).^[4] The TLL calls the origin uncertain unless it belongs with that verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on,^[4] who uses it of rubbing someone's knees in supplication: genua fricentur, “let knees be rubbed”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its senses are to rub or chafe, to massage or rub down after bathing, to rub with a medicine, and to smooth or polish by rubbing;^[2][3] Cato uses it of finishing a floor.^[2][3] Virgil has a swine rubbing its ribs against a tree, and Pliny the Elder says that the tear of a plant is fragrant when rubbed.^[3] Lewis and Short note that Cicero and Caesar do not use it, and that Plautus, Petronius and Martial also use it in an obscene sense.^[3] Döderlein distinguishes it from terō: fricāre is to rub so as to make smooth, terere to rub so as to wear away.^[6]

It continues in the Romance languages, as Italian fregare, Spanish fregar, Romanian freca and French frayer; from Old French, Middle English took fraien, the source of English fray “to rub”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of rubbing knees and of massage.^[2][4][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of polishing a floor.^[2]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has a swine rubbing its ribs on a tree.^[3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of rubbing with medicaments.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rub, chafe.^[2][3][1]
2. To massage, rub down; to rub with a medicament.^[2][3]
3. To smooth or polish by rubbing; to rub clean.^[2][3]

Word family

• affricō
• circumfricō
• cōnfricō
• dēfricō
• effricō
• fricamentum
• fricātiō
• fricator
• fricātūra
• fricātus
• fricium
• frictiō

Related words

• friō
• frīvolus
• English fray

Usage notes

Ancient grammarians distinguished its perfect fricuī from that of frīgō “roast”.^[5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de