Etymologically
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largior

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Forms

largior (present infinitive largīrī or largīrier, perfect active largītus sum); fourth conjugation, deponent[1] Old forms are the imperfect largībar in Propertius, the future largībere and the infinitive largīrier in Plautus, and the active imperative largī in Accius and Lucilius.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from largus (“abundant, generous”) with the verbal suffix -iō.[2][4][1] The origin of ⟨largus⟩ is unclear: de Vaan doubts that its long /aː/ is original, which undermines Walde and Pokorny's ⟨*lajes-ago-⟩ “carrying fat”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author,[6] with tū istam cēnam largīre … ēsurientibus, “give that dinner away to the hungry”, in the Amphitruo.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to give generously or lavish gifts, as in Plautus and Lucilius, and Ennius has fields that “bestow” their crops.[2][3] Absolutely it is to give gifts corruptly, to bribe, as in Cicero's Pro Murena and in Caesar and Sallust.[2][3]

It is also to grant abstract things, as Plautus' “is it right for a father to bestow such morals on his children?”, of time or circumstances to allow, and to overlook or concede a point, as Cicero's “yet I concede and grant this”.[2] Church Latin glosses it “bestow, grant, donate”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of giving a dinner away and of bestowing morals.[2][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of fields bestowing crops.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of bribery and of conceding a point.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To give generously, bestow, lavish.[2][3][1]
  2. (absolute) To give bribes.[2][1]
  3. To grant, confer; to allow, permit.[2][1][7]
  4. To condone, overlook; to concede.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson