intego

Forms

integō (present infinitive integere, perfect active intēxī, supine intēctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + tegō (“to cover”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces tegō to Proto-Italic *teg-e/o- (“to cover”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”), comparing Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō, “to keep off, keep in”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation is in Plautus' Rudens, where a man sees that his whole farmhouse must be roofed again.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to cover or overlay: Cato has tying and covering plants, Caesar towers covered with hides, Livy a thick fog covering the pass and the plains.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses it of animals covered with hide and hair.^[2] It is also to roof, and to shelter a person: Propertius asks what portico now shelters a girl.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of roofing a house.^[2][4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of covering plants.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of towers covered with hides.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a fog covering the plains.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover, overlay; of skin or fur, to cover naturally.^[2][4][1]
2. To cover with a roof; to shelter (a person).^[2][1]

Word family

• integumentum
• superintegō

Related words

• tegō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de