iurgo

Forms

iūrgō (present infinitive iūrgāre, perfect active iūrgāvī, supine iūrgātum); first conjugation^[1] Plautus has the older form iūrigō.^[2][3] Grammarians also record a deponent iūrgor.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is from Latin iūs² (“law, right”) + -igō, with the combining form of agō (“to drive, conduct”), like lītigō.^[2][1] De Vaan bases the verb, together with obiūrgō and iūrgium, on an unattested noun going back to Proto-Indo-European *ieu̯os-h₂ǵ-o- (“bringing the oath”);^[6] the older spelling ⟨iūrigō⟩ points the same way.^[6][2] Since “to pursue the law” hardly suits the meaning, Szemerényi suggested a verb ⟨*agāre⟩ “to declare”, as the TLL reports.^[4]

Varro already derived it from the word for law, since one who quarrels goes to law.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[6][4] meaning to quarrel: in the Mercator one has to run, to fight and to quarrel in the street (et currendum et pugnandum et autem iurigandum est in via).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to quarrel or wrangle, a lighter thing than a lawsuit: Cicero, discussing the Twelve Tables, says that the law regards neighbours as quarrelling with one another (iūrgāre), not as litigating, since a dispute among friends is a iūrgium and not a līs.^[4] Terence, Varro and Horace use it, but it is rare in later poetry.^[4] From the sense of quarrelling it came to mean uttering reproaches, and, used transitively, to scold or upbraid, as in Livy and Curtius.^[2][4]

Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense “to quarrel”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the older form iūrigō for quarrelling.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it.^[4][3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts iūrgāre with lītigāre.^[4][7]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it for scolding.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To quarrel, dispute, wrangle.^[2][3]
2. To utter reproaches;^[2][3] (transitive) to scold, upbraid.^[2][3]

Word family

• abiūrgō
• obiūrgō

Related words

• iūrgium

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de