harpago

Forms

harpagō m (genitive harpagōnis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts also spell it arpagō.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἁρπάγη (harpágē, “hook”),^[3][1][4] from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch away, seize”), whose origin is uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on.^[2] In the Trinummus it is a term of abuse for a grasping person, in a string with “smooth talker” and “liar” (blandiloquentulus, harpago, mendax).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is military: a grappling hook on a pole, used to pull down siege works and roofs or to seize enemy ships.^[3][2] Caesar uses it in both kinds of fighting, and Livy, describing beams tipped with iron hooks thrown from Punic ships, adds that soldiers call them harpagōnes.^[3][2] Pliny the Elder names Pericles of Athens as the inventor of the grappling hook.^[2] Ulpian lists it among household tools, for drawing things out of wells,^[3][2] and an early Latin version of Exodus uses it for the flesh hooks of the altar.^[2]

In Gildas it means the talons of a hawk, and Old English glossaries render it with words for an awl or a hook.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a rapacious person.^[3][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it for grappling hooks in siege and sea warfare.^[3][2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy says that soldiers call iron-tipped beams harpagōnes.^[3][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian counts it among domestic implements.^[3][5]
• c. 510–570 AD – Gildas uses it for a hawk's talons.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A pole with a hook for tearing down structures or seizing ships, a grappling hook.^[3][6]
2. A similar hook for household use, for drawing things up or out.^[3][2]
3. (figurative) A rapacious person.^[3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A talon, a hook.^[4]

Usage notes

A verb harpagō, -āre “to steal, carry off”, formed from it, occurs in Plautus.^[3][6]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press