invigilo

Forms

invigilō (present infinitive invigilāre, perfect active invigilāvī, supine invigilātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + vigilō (“to keep awake, watch”).^[2][3] The simple verb is made from vigil (“awake; watchman”), which de Vaan lists beside vigeō (“to thrive”) and considers certainly cognate with vegeō (“to rouse”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cinna (doubtfully), Cicero and Virgil on;^[2] Cicero says in the Philippics that he had kept watch over the state (invigilāsse reī pūblicae).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its plain sense is to stay awake: Celsus uses it of someone who stays awake a little and then sleeps well, and Ovid of lying awake in suffering.^[5][7][8] With a dative it means to stay up working over something; in a wider sense it means to watch over something with care: Virgil's bees are intent on getting food, Pliny the Younger speaks of watching over the public good and Ulpian of attending to an inheritance.^[5][7][9] Cinna uses the participle invigilātus of poems produced by nightly study by lamplight.^[5][8] Lactantius uses it of guarding houses.^[6] Its participle gave English invigilate, recorded from the 1550s, which in the late 19th century came to be used of watching over students at examinations.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of watching over the state.^[5][11]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of bees intent on food.^[5][11]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of staying awake.^[5][11]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of guarding houses.^[6][11]
• 1550s – English invigilate is formed from its participle.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stay awake; to stay up working or brooding (over something).^[5][6]
2. To watch over diligently, be intent on, pay attention to.^[5][6][12]

Related words

• English invigilate

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
12. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson