Etymologically
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obloquor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔb.ɫɔ.kʷɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔb.lo.kʷor][1]

Forms

obloquor (present infinitive obloquī, perfect active oblocūtus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + loquor (“to speak”),[2][3][1] literally “to speak against”.[4] loquor goes back to Proto-Italic *(t)lokʷ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tlokʷ- (“to talk”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus' Menaechmi, with the dative, of breaking in on a speaker: te morare mihi quom obloquere, “you hold me up when you interrupt me”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Plautus, Afranius and Cicero use it of interrupting and contradicting;[4][2] Cicero writes to his brother that he would like him to address him, interrupt him and talk with him.[4] Catullus uses it of railing at someone,[4] and in the Aeneid the singer obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum, accompanying the rhythm with the seven notes of the lyre;[2][4] Ovid uses it of birdsong.[4]

From Seneca on it means “to blame, find fault with”,[4] and the Vulgate has it in the Psalms.[4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to revile, slander or speak against.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of interrupting.[2][4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of contradicting.[2][4][6]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of railing at someone.[4][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a musical accompaniment.[2][4][6]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of reviling.[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To interrupt (a speaker), break in; to contradict.[2][4]
  2. To rail at, abuse.[4]
  3. To sing or play as an accompaniment (to).[2][4]
  4. To blame, find fault with.[4]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To revile, slander.[7]

Word family

  • oblocūtiō
  • oblocūtor
  • obloquium

Usage notes

Lewis and Short give interpellō as a synonym of the first sense.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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 q r Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 e f 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