inflecto

Forms

īnflectō (present infinitive īnflectere, perfect active īnflexī, supine īnflexum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in”) + flectō (“to bend”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs flectō as Proto-Italic *flek-t-, perhaps with a suffix ⟨-t-⟩ on the model of plectō (“to plait”); the root has no clear cognates elsewhere in Indo-European.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] The OLD's first literal example is from Cicero, who contrasts a stick bent on purpose with one that grew crooked.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend or curve inwards, and in the passive to become bent: Caesar has iron that had bent, Cicero a bay curving round towards a city, and Pliny the Elder mountains curving like a theatre.^[2][5] It is to turn something aside or alter a course, and figuratively to bend a person from his purpose: Cicero speaks of civil law that cannot be bent by favour.^[2] In rhetoric it is to modify a word, and to modulate the voice, as to a pitiful tone.^[2] Grammarians used it of marking a syllable with the circumflex accent.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bent stick and of the modulated voice.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of a spear bending in a shield.^[2][6]
• early 15th century – English inflect is borrowed from it.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend or curve inwards; in the passive, to become bent; to tilt.^[2][5][1]
2. To turn aside, change the course of.^[2][1]
3. To turn a person from his purpose, influence.^[2][1]
4. To adapt, modify, alter; to modulate the voice.^[2][1]
5. (grammar) To mark or pronounce with a circumflex accent.^[1]

Word family

• īnflexiō
• inflexus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com