indago

indago¹ track, investigate

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɪnˈdaː.ɡoː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [inˈdaː.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

indāgō (present infinitive indāgāre, perfect active indāgāvī, supine indāgātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The verb is from Latin indāgō² (“ring of hunters”), as the OLD has it;^[2] the TLL derives it from that noun or from an adjective ⟨*ind-agus⟩, comparing pairs such as cālīgō beside its verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it in the Mercator, of whether a woman could be traced by asking what the buyer looked like, and in the Trinummus of finding out the facts.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is to track down animals, as a hunting dog does: Cicero has a dog born for tracking, and Columella says a good hunter takes as many beasts as he can in a great forest.^[2][4] More generally it is to search out persons or things, and to find out facts by investigation.^[2][4] Varro has a deponent indāgor.^[2][4] Döderlein groups it with verbs of seeking that involve taking pains.^[5] Stelten gives “investigate, inquire”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of tracing a woman and finding out facts.^[2][3][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro has the deponent.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a tracking dog.^[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To track down, hunt out (animals).^[2][4][1]
2. To search out, find by seeking; to investigate, find out.^[2][4][1][6]

Word family

• indāgātiō
• indāgātor
• indāgātrīx
• indāgābilis

indago² ring of hunters, encircling

Etymology tree of indago²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin ago

French agir

Latin actrix

Latin ambigo

Latin actio

French action

Latin abigo

Latin dego

Latin perago

Latin adigo

Latin activus

English active

English activist

Latin actus

English act

Latin actuosus

Latin actor

English actor

English actress

French acteur

Latin subigo

Latin circumago

Latin agito

French agiter

Latin agitatio

Latin exagito

Latin redigo

Latin indago

Latin agilis

Latin cogo

Latin coactor

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɪnˈdaː.ɡoː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [inˈdaː.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

indāgō f (genitive indāginis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The noun is from Latin indu- (“in”) + agō (“to drive”), compared by the OLD with ambāgēs.^[2][1] De Vaan traces agō to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to drive, lead”) and Oscan acum (“to act”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short find it mostly in post-Augustan writers; its first citation is Virgil's hunters circling the glades with a ring of nets.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It is a ring of hunters or nets thrown round a wood so that game cannot escape,^[2][4] and by extension the surrounding of enemies, as Florus has of ships caught as if in a net.^[4][1] Ulpian uses it of the game taken in one such drive.^[2] It also means a search or investigation, as Gellius has of the gluttons' hunt for delicacies far and wide.^[2] In Late Latin it is a judicial inquiry,^[1] and in Medieval Latin a game park or forest,^[9][1] and in Hungary a border march.^[1]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a hunters' ring.^[2][4][7]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius, of a search for delicacies.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ring of hunters or nets round a wood; the game so caught.^[2][4][1]
2. A surrounding of enemies.^[4][1]
3. A tracking down, search, investigation.^[2][1]
4. (Late Latin, law) A judicial inquiry.^[1]
5. (Medieval Latin) A game park, forest; a border march.^[9][1]