Etymologically
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gigno

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɡɪŋ.noː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈd͡ʒiɲ.ɲo][1]

Forms

gignō (present infinitive gignere, perfect active genuī, supine genitum); third conjugation[1] Old Latin also has an unreduplicated present genō, used until Varro.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *gignō, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵi-ǵnh₁-e/o- (“to beget”), the reduplicated present of the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, be born”).[2][1] The participle genitus is a later formation, made on the perfect genuī, replacing the old participle preserved in nātus.[2]

Cognate with Ancient Greek γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “to be born, become”), Sanskrit जनति (jánati, “begets”) and Old Irish gainithir (“is born”).[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.[2] Ennius has the people cry, “O Romulus, what a guardian of the fatherland the gods begot in you!”[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant to beget or bring into being, of gods, fathers and mothers, as Ennius' “Saturn, whom Caelus begot”, and in the passive to be born.[3] A country was said to give birth to its citizens, as in Cicero, and nature to produce things, as Plautus' land “where incense grows”.[3]

It meant to produce or give rise to abstract things, as Cicero's “virtue begets friendship”, and to produce by thought, as a man who “begot eloquence in this city”.[3] In philosophy the passive was “to be coming into being”, as opposed to eternal being, in Cicero's Timaeus.[3] From it come genitor, genetrix and ingenium.[2][1] English genuine comes from its derivative genuinus, and generate from the related generare.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for things growing and men being born.[3][7]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of gods begetting Romulus.[3][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro still uses the old present genit.[4][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for virtue begetting friendship.[3][7]
  • 1590s – English genuine is first recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To beget, bear, bring forth.[3][4]
  2. (passive) To be born.[3][1]
  3. (of a country, of nature) To produce.[3][1]
  4. To cause, give rise to.[3][1]
  5. To produce (by the mind).[3]
  6. (philosophy, passive) To come into being.[3]

Word family

  • congenitus
  • ēgignō
  • Genita
  • genitābilis
  • genitūra
  • genitus
  • genuīnus
  • indigenus
  • ingenitus
  • ingignō
  • postgenitus
  • prōgignō
  • gēns
  • genus
  • gnātus
  • nātus
  • nāscor
  • English genuine
  • English generate
  • English genitive

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes creare, to call something into being by one's own will, from gignere, to bring it forth by procreation or birth.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper