Etymologically
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iurgo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈjuːr.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈjur.ɡo][1]

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

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