navo

Forms

nāvō (present infinitive nāvāre, perfect active nāvāvī, supine nāvātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled gnāvō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin nāvus (“busy, diligent”) + -ō.^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan traces nāvus, also written ⟨gnāvus⟩, to Proto-Italic *gnāwo- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-uo- (“knowing”), with a shift of meaning from "knowing" to "experienced" and "busy"; cognates include Old Irish gnó (“business”).^[5] He notes that it may also have been formed after gnārus (“knowing”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it first, in letters and speeches;^[2][4] he writes that no one is so crushed that he cannot do and achieve something.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means to do something with zeal and diligence.^[4] Its commonest use is operam nāvāre, to busy oneself or to give one's help: Cicero has people who offer themselves unasked to give their services, and wishes he could have given Brutus his help and zeal;^[2][4] Livy uses it of fighting vigorously in the battle line, and Tacitus of a man eager to do service.^[4] Cicero also uses it of showing goodwill and zeal,^[4] and of having succeeded in an aim by coming somewhere.^[2][4] Tacitus has bellum nāvāre, to wage a war vigorously, and even flāgitium nāvāre, to commit a crime.^[4] Stelten gives "act or perform with zeal or diligence" for Church Latin.^[6] Manuscripts and glossaries also have the spelling gnāvō.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of doing something with zeal and of operam nāvāre.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of fighting vigorously.^[4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of waging war vigorously.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To do with zeal, devote oneself to, prosecute (an activity); operam nāvāre, to busy oneself, give one's help.^[2][4][1]
2. To carry through, accomplish; to show (zeal, goodwill).^[2][4]
3. (of war) To wage vigorously;^[4] (of a crime) to commit.^[4]

Related words

• nāvus
• īgnāvus
• nāviter

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson