ingurgito

Forms

ingurgitō (present infinitive ingurgitāre, perfect active ingurgitāvī, supine ingurgitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + gurges (“whirlpool, abyss”), a verb meaning to put “into the whirlpool”.^[2][3][1] De Vaan suggests that gurges may be a reduplicated formation from the Indo-European root meaning “to devour”, though its morphology is unclear.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Naevius, of a drink poured down to the bottom of the throat: ingurgitāvit usque ad īmum gutturem.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Plautus has vidē ut ingurgitat in sē merum avāriter, “see how greedily the neat wine is gulped down”.^[5][6] It also meant to engulf or drench: Pliny the Elder writes of moisture from snow that does not flood the ground all at once but trickles in.^[2][5] Reflexively Cicero uses it figuratively of plunging oneself into vices or into another man's wealth, and Gellius writes of someone who drowned all his wits in frequent cups.^[2][6][5] The TLL records contracted forms of the perfect.^[3]

Italian ingurgitare comes from it.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of pouring a drink down the throat.^[2][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of greedily gulping wine.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it reflexively of plunging into vice.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of water flooding the soil.^[2][7]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of drowning one's wits in wine.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour in a flood; to gulp down a drink.^[2][6]
2. To engulf or plunge in a liquid, drench, flood.^[2]
3. (reflexive, figurative) To plunge oneself into something, as vice or another's property.^[2][6][1]
4. (reflexive or passive) To souse oneself with drink, gorge.^[2]

Word family

• ingurgitatio

Related words

• gurges

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de