offirmo

Forms

offirmō (present infinitive offirmāre, perfect active offirmāvī, supine offirmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + firmō (“to make firm”).^[2][3][1] That verb is formed from firmus (“firm”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *fermo- and Proto-Indo-European *dher-mo- (“holding”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][3] meaning to make the mind hard and unyielding, or to make up one's mind: satin offirmātum quod mihi erat, id mē exōrat?, “am I being talked out of what I had firmly resolved?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

In early Latin it is used of hardening the will or oneself (offirmā tē), and of making up one's mind to a course of action, in Plautus, Terence, Pacuvius and Accius.^[2] Catullus has quīn tū animō offirmās, “why do you not steel your heart?”^[2] In classical Latin it is mostly found in the participle offirmātus, “resolute, obstinate”.^[5] Festus glosses offirmātō as “obstinate, persevering”.^[3]

The physical sense, to make something fast, appears in Apuleius, of a pole used to bar the doors of a stable.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of hardening one's resolve.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it reflexively and with an infinitive.^[2][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it intransitively of steeling oneself.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of a mind steeled to endure everything.^[2][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of barring doors.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make (something) firm against attack, to bar, secure.^[2][5]
2. To make (the mind or will) unyielding;^[2][1] (reflexive or intransitive) to steel oneself, refuse to give way.^[2][1]
3. To make up one's mind to, persist in (a course of action).^[2][5]

Word family

• offirmātē
• offirmātus

Related words

• affirmō
• firmō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de