Etymologically
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pacifico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [paːˈkɪ.fɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [paˈt͡ʃiː.fi.ko][1]

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

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