Etymologically
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frico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfrɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfriː.ko][1]

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

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