Etymologically
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immugio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪmˈmuː.ɡi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [imˈmuː.d͡ʒi.o][1]

Forms

immūgiō (present infinitive immūgīre, perfect active immūgīvī or immūgiī, supine immūgītum); fourth conjugation, no passive[1] It is also spelled inmūgiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + mūgiō (“to low, bellow”).[2][1][4] De Vaan calls mūgiō an imitation of a cow's lowing, from Proto-Italic *mūg- and Proto-Indo-European *mū̆g-,[5] cognate with Ancient Greek μυκάομαι (mukáomai, “to low, bellow”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Virgil, who uses it of Etna roaring in its hollow caverns, curvīs immūgiit Aetna cavernīs, and of a palace resounding with mourning.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a poetic word.[3] Seneca uses it of a lion bellowing and of the sea, fire and caves roaring or resounding, and Silius Italicus of a bull at the altars, of the earth and of a storm in the yards of a ship.[2] The TLL explains it as bellowing loudly, towards something or in a place.[4]

In Christian Latin Jerome writes that the world will groan aloud when the Lord comes to judge, lūgubre mundus immūgiet.[3]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Etna and of a palace full of mourning.[2]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a lion and of the sea.[2]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of a bull and of a storm.[2]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of the world on the Day of Judgement.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of animals, to bellow, roar (in or at).[2][3]
  2. Of the sea, the earth and other natural forces, to roar.[2]
  3. Of places, to resound.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de