ingruo

Forms

ingruō (present infinitive ingruere, perfect active ingruī); third conjugation, no supine^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + -gruō, a verb found only in compounds, as also in congruō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨-gruō⟩ to Proto-Italic *xruwō and Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewh₁- (“to rush in”).^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἔχραον (ékhraon, “attacked”) and Lithuanian griū́ti (“to crumble”).^[3][1] Lewis & Short still explain it as ruō (“to rush”) with an inserted ⟨g⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] whose Amphitruo has “the enemy fall in heaps, our men press on against them”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is used of armies advancing threateningly or making an onslaught, of natural forces bearing down, as Virgil's shade falling twice on the vines, and of unwelcome things such as disease falling on people, as in Livy.^[2] It also means to threaten or impend, as Virgil's “the horror of arms comes on”.^[2] Döderlein says that it is to press on with threats, while irruō is to rush in rashly and irrumpō to force one's way in.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “assault”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of troops pressing on.^[2][3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of shade and of the horror of arms.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of disease falling on country people.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of armies, to advance threateningly, make an onslaught, assail.^[2][4][1]
2. Of forces or misfortunes, to fall upon; to threaten, impend.^[2][4]

Related words

• congruō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de