pacifico

Forms

pācificō (present infinitive pācificāre, perfect active pācificāvī, supine pācificātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pāx (“peace”) + -ficō (“making”).^[2][1] Lewis and Short explain it as “peace-making”, with faciō (“to make”) as its second part.^[3] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *pāk- (“agreement, peace”) and Proto-Indo-European *peh2ḱ- (“agreement”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has the passive pacificari “to be reconciled”: in the Stichus a character asks whether he has fully made his peace with another.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Used intransitively, it meant to negotiate or conclude a peace, as in Sallust and Livy.^[2][3][5] Catullus used it transitively, of appeasing the gods with a sacrifice,^[2][3] and later poets and Seneca of soothing the gods or the mind.^[3] Priscian lists it among the verbs that the ancients used with either an active or a deponent ending in the same sense, and Justin has the deponent pacificari.^[5][3]

In Christian Latin it meant to grant or make peace,^[6] as in the Vulgate,^[3] and Gregory of Tours still uses the mediopassive of peoples making peace.^[5] The TLL lists Spanish apaciguar among its descendants,^[5] and English took pacify from it through French in the late 15th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the passive for being reconciled.^[5][8]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it intransitively, of negotiating for peace.^[2][8]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it transitively, of appeasing the gods.^[2][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of making peace.^[3][8]
• late 15th century – English borrows it, through French, as pacify.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To negotiate or conclude a peace.^[2][3]
2. (transitive) To placate, appease, soothe.^[2][3]
3. (passive or deponent) To be reconciled, make one's peace with someone.^[3][5]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To grant peace, make peace.^[6]

Word family

• pācificātiō
• pācificātor

Related words

• pācālis
• pācātē
• pācātiō
• pācātor
• pācātōrius
• pācātum
• pācātus
• pācifer
• pācificātōrius
• pācificē
• pācō
• pācificus
• English pacify

References

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