nigro

Forms

nigrō (present infinitive nigrāre, perfect active nigrāvī, supine nigrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin niger (“black”) + -ō.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the adjective, from Varro on, and calls the origin of the adjective unknown.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,^[3] who uses the participle of black ox horns.^[4][5] Lucretius has the verb itself, warning the reader not to think that ea quae nigrant, things that are black, are born from black seeds.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Intransitive, it means to be black, and its present participle nigrans was common in poetry for black or dark:^[2][4][7] Virgil has bullocks with black backs, Ovid black wings, Propertius the dark homes of the silent souls, and Silius Italicus the dark sea.^[4] Transitive, to make black, it appears in Statius, of a mother who had blackened her arms with beating them in grief.^[2][4] Tertullian uses it figuratively of people darkened by the shadows of ignorance.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the participle of black horns.^[4][3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of things that are black.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses the participle of black bullocks.^[4][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of blackening the arms.^[2][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of darkening by ignorance.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be black; present participle nigrans, black, dark.^[2][4][7]
2. (transitive) To make black, blacken.^[2][8]
3. (figurative) To darken.^[4][6]

Word family

• dēnigrō

Related words

• niger

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.