iniungo

Forms

iniungō (present infinitive iniungere, perfect active iniūnxī, supine iniūnctum); third conjugation^[1] The spelling injungo is also used.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + iungō (“to join”).^[3][1][4] De Vaan traces iungō to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”).^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit युनज्मि (yunájmi, “I yoke”), Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke”) and Lithuanian jùngti (“to join, yoke”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest examples in the OLD are in a letter of Plancus and Decimus Brutus among Cicero's correspondence, of not imposing any loss on the state, and in Livy, of a wall joined on to the walls of Ardea.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to join on or fasten to something, as Livy's beams joined to rafters and his siege wall, and Palladius uses it of setting a tree into a trench.^[3][2] Columella has it of pairing animals for breeding, and a papyrus of enrolling someone in a body.^[3] Figuratively it is to impose tasks, duties or punishments on someone, and in a good sense to bestow an honour, as in the Culex.^[3][2] Church Latin glosses it “impose, enjoin, inflict”.^[6] English enjoin (c. 1200), first of imposing a penance, came from it through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of joining walls and beams.^[3][2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella of pairing animals.^[3][8]
• c. 1200 – English enjoin through Old French.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To join on, fasten, attach; to pair animals; to enrol.^[3][2][1]
2. To impose a task, duty or punishment; to enjoin, charge.^[3][2][1][6]
3. To bestow an honour.^[3]

Word family

• iniūnctiō
• subiniungō

Related words

• iungō
• English enjoin

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de