Etymologically
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fugito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfʊ.ɡɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfuː.d͡ʒi.to][1]

Forms

fugitō (present infinitive fugitāre, perfect active fugitāvī, supine fugitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fugiō (“to flee”) + -itō, a frequentative.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus' Asinaria: "do you think we are running away from our master?"[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to run away from or desert someone, and Lewis & Short find it mostly before the classical period.[2][4] Terence has it without an object: a man was wretched with fleeing so that no one would know him.[2][4] It also means to avoid or shun: in Plautus' Captivi someone is said to shun another's eyes.[2] Ammianus Marcellinus has Greeks fleeing.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of running from a master.[2][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of fleeing.[2][4][3]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus of fleeing Greeks.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To run away from, flee, desert;[2][4][1] (intransitive) to flee.[2][4][1]
  2. To avoid, shun.[2][4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press