ingredior

Forms

ingredior (present infinitive ingredī, perfect active ingressus sum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, deponent^[1] Plautus may have the infinitive ingredīrī, Lucretius splits it (inque gredī); the archaic compound indugredior is found in Lucretius.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, into”) + gradior (“to step, walk”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.^[2][1][4] De Vaan explains ⟨-gredior⟩ for expected ⟨*-gridior⟩ by analogy with the participle ⟨-gressus⟩, and traces gradior to Proto-Italic *grad-ei-, from a root that Wiktionary gives as Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to step”);^[5][1] he compares Old Irish in·greinn (“to chase”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus: ingressus fluvium rapidum, “having gone into a swift river”.^[2][6] Ennius has quod iter incipiam ingredī?, “what road shall I start to take?”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ingredior is to go into or onto a place, properly on foot, and to set out on a road.^[2][3] Figuratively it is to enter on a period of office or of life (Sallust: ubi prīmum magistrātum ingressus est) and to begin an undertaking, a speech or a subject (with an infinitive, “to begin to”).^[2][1] Used alone it is to walk, move forward (Cicero, of a man who could hardly walk), and to advance to the attack.^[2] Döderlein notes that ingredī, like intrāre and introīre, is a literal entering, while inīre is almost always figurative.^[7]

In the Bible it is also to go in to a woman.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “enter, come in, advance, begin”.^[8] English ingredient (early 15th century) and ingress (mid-15th century) come from its present participle and its noun ingressus.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ingressus fluvium rapidum.^[2][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: quod iter incipiam ingredī?.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of entering office.^[2][6]
• early 15th century – English ingredient.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go into, enter; to step onto.^[2][3][1][8]
2. To set out on (a road).^[2]
3. To enter upon (an office, a stage of life).^[2][1]
4. To embark on, begin (an undertaking, a speech); to begin to.^[2][1][8]
5. To walk, advance, proceed.^[2][1]
6. To advance to the attack; to assail.^[2]
7. (biblical) To go in to (a woman).^[1]

Word family

• ingressiō
• ingressus
• superingredior

Related words

• aggredior
• antegredior
• congredior
• dēgredior
• dīgredior
• ēgredior
• gradior
• prōgredior
• regredior
• retrōgradior
• gradus
• English ingredient
• English ingress

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com