incurso

Forms

incursō (present infinitive incursāre, perfect active incursāvī, supine incursātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incurrō (“to run against, attack”) + -tō, a frequentative.^[2][3][1][4] The simple verb currō (“to run”) goes back to Proto-Italic *korse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *krs-e/o- (“to run”).^[5] De Vaan notes that compounds in ⟨-cursō⟩, being more recent than those in ⟨-currō⟩, always keep the concrete sense of running.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus' Asinaria, of the place where dead oxen attack living men, that is, where oxhide whips are used.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to charge at or attack:^[2][3] Plautus has in vōs incursābimus, "we will charge at you", and Livy an attack on the Roman column.^[3] In war it is to raid a territory, as Livy's enemies who raided the fields once they saw the legions withdrawn.^[2] It also means to rush into a place, as in Statius, and to intrude on something, as Pliny the Elder of wool of a black sheep into which no other colour has intruded.^[2] Of things it means to knock or run against: Ovid has dolphins that hold the woods and bump against the high branches.^[2] Quintilian uses it of what strikes the eyes or ears.^[2] Wiktionary also gives the sense of assaulting a woman.^[1] Stelten glosses it "run or strike against".^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of attacking.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of raids on fields.^[2]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of dolphins bumping against branches.^[2]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of things striking the senses.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To charge at, attack, assault.^[2][3][1][6]
2. To make raids into (territory).^[2]
3. To rush into (a place); to intrude upon.^[2]
4. To knock or run against; to strike (the senses).^[2][3]
5. To assault (a woman).^[1]

Word family

• incursitō

Related words

• incurrō
• incursātiō
• incursāx
• incursim
• incursiō
• incursus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson