incurvo

Forms

incurvō (present infinitive incurvāre, perfect active incurvāvī, supine incurvātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incurvus (“bent, crooked”) + -ō;^[2] the TLL derives it from in- and curvus (“curved”) or curvō (“to bend”).^[3] De Vaan calls the origin of curvus uncertain, reconstructing Proto-Italic *ku/orwo-, and finds the best comparison in Old Irish corr (“hooked”) and perhaps Ancient Greek κυρτός (kurtós, “curved”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on.^[3] In De finibus he speaks of a staff bent and crooked on purpose, bacillum inflexum et incurvatum de industria.^[2] Lewis & Short note that Cicero has it only once, as a participle, and that it is otherwise poetic and post-Augustan.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend or curve what is normally straight: Catullus has oars bent in the sea, Virgil bows bent with strength, and Pliny the Elder timbers bending under a load.^[2][5] Reflexive or passive, it is used of coasts and the rainbow that curve round, as in Mela and Seneca.^[2] It is also to bow down or make stoop: Calpurnius has winter bending the grove, and Seneca a body bent with its gaze on the ground.^[2] Figuratively it is to bow in spirit or crush, as Seneca says that a great mind is not bowed by injury, and in Persius to sway someone's mind.^[2] Medieval writers also use it of modulating a sound and of oppressing.^[6] It survives in Old Occitan encorbar and Spanish encorvar.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a staff bent on purpose.^[2][3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of bending bows.^[2][5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a mind bowed by injury.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend, make crooked, curve.^[2][5][1]
2. (reflexive or passive) Of coasts and the like: to extend in a curve.^[2]
3. To make stoop, bow down.^[2][5][8]
4. (figurative) To bow down in spirit, crush; to sway the mind.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) To modulate (a sound); to oppress.^[6]

Related words

• curvus
• incurvus
• curvō
• incurvēscō

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 k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson