Etymologically
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palpo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpaɫ.poː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpal.po][1]

Forms

palpō (present infinitive palpāre, perfect active palpāvī, supine palpātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2] De Vaan finds a sequence ⟨palp-⟩ hard to explain from Proto-Indo-European;[2] Serbat posits a verb meaning “to move repeatedly” to account for palpebra (“eyelid”) and palpitō (“to throb”), which would make palpus (“palm of the hand”) and this verb two old formations of one stem.[2] The TLL and Georges connect it with that noun.[3][4] The OLD compares, with hesitation, Ancient Greek ψηλαφάω (psēlapháō, “to feel about”) and ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck”), Old High German fuolen (“to feel”) and Old English fēlan (“to feel”).[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,[2][6] who uses the deponent palpor for coaxing: “how sweetly he will coax the woman” (quam blande mulieri palpabitur).[7][3]

Semantic evolution

From coaxing it came to mean flattering and wheedling, absolutely or with a dative or accusative, in Lucilius, Horace, Pollio and Juvenal.[7][4] The literal sense, stroking an animal gently with the flat of the hand, is in Ovid and Manilius, who has wolves stroked (palpare lupos);[4][5] Seneca uses it of soothing, and Apuleius of calming the anger of Venus (Veneris iram palpare).[5][4]

In the Vulgate it means groping one's way like a blind man: palpes in meridie, sicut palpare solet caecus in tenebris, “you will grope at noon as the blind grope in the dark”.[7][8] Church writers use it of handling and touching.[9] It survives in Italian palpare,[3] and English palpate and palp come from its family.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the deponent for coaxing.[7][3][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of flattering.[7][4][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of stroking.[7][4][6]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius has the noun palpo “flatterer”.[7][6]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of groping one's way.[7][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To stroke, pat, caress.[5][4]
  2. (figurative) To soothe, soften.[5]
  3. To coax, wheedle, flatter.[7][4]
  4. (Late Latin) To feel one's way, grope.[7][8]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To handle, touch.[9]

Word family

  • compalpō
  • expalpō
  • palpābilis
  • palpāmen
  • palpāmentum
  • palpātiō
  • palpātor
  • palpebra
  • palpitō
  • palpus
  • English palpable

Usage notes

The deponent palpor is used in the same senses by Plautus, Lucilius, Pollio and Horace.[3][7] The noun palpō, -ōnis “flatterer” is cited from Persius and the grammarians,[7][4] though the TLL thinks it arose from a misreading of the ablative of palpus;[3] in Medieval Latin it was a real word for a flatterer.[11]

Döderlein distinguishes palpare, stroking something already smooth to give a pleasant feeling, hence caressing and coaxing, from mulcēre, stroking something rough to smooth it, hence calming an angry person.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper