incingo

Forms

incingō (present infinitive incingere, perfect active incinxī, supine incinctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + cingō (“to gird, surround”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan calls the etymology of cingō uncertain: of the cognates proposed, Lithuanian kinkýti (“to bridle horses”) fits the meaning, but its root shape cannot be Proto-Indo-European.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it from Ennius and Livy on, and finds it a favourite of Ovid and Mela.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to gird or wrap round, mostly reflexive or passive: Catullus has some girding themselves with twisted snakes, and Ovid has altars wreathed with sacred boughs.^[2][5] It also means to surround or encompass, as cities with towered walls in Ovid,^[2][5] and of natural barriers to enclose: the poem Aetna has the earth enclosed by the curving waves of the farthest sea.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, not used by Cicero in prose, and frequent in the perfect participle.^[5] It survives in French enceindre and Portuguese incingir.^[3]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, its first use according to the TLL.^[3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.^[3]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of Bacchants girt with snakes.^[2]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of altars and of towered walls.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gird, wrap round (with clothes, garlands or the like).^[2][5][1]
2. To surround, encompass (with walls); (of natural barriers) to enclose.^[2][5]

Word family

• incingulum

Related words

• cingō
• succingō
• praecingō

References

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