illigo

Forms

illigō (present infinitive illigāre, perfect active illigāvī, supine illigātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled inligō.^[2][3] Virgil splits it in tmesis: inque ligātus.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, on”) + ligō (“to tie, bind”).^[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *-lig-ā- for ligō and, with a question mark, a root Proto-Indo-European *liǵ- (“to tie”), comparing Albanian lidh (“to tie”); he notes that the simple verb is not found before Catullus, while compounds such as this one are older.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, translating Sophocles: Hercules, bound in a woven pest, perishes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bind or tie up, and in Virgil to hamper a wounded man.^[2] It is also to attach by tying, as Horace's ploughs yoked to many bullocks, and to fix one thing to another, as the ornaments Cicero says were set in golden cups.^[2][3] Figuratively it is to involve or tie up, as philosophers caught in narrow disputes, and to bind under obligation: Cicero says the state holds Lepidus bound by many pledges.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to fetter, impede, entangle or encumber.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of binding, of fixing ornaments and of obligation.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a man hampered by a wound.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of ploughs yoked to oxen.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bind or tie up; to encumber, hamper.^[2][5][1]
2. To attach by tying, fasten; to fix on.^[2][3][1]
3. Figuratively, to involve, entangle; to bind by an obligation.^[2][5]

Word family

• illigamentum
• illigatio

Related words

• ligō
• obligō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de