Etymologically
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paveo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpa.we.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpaː.ve.o][1]

Forms

paveō (present infinitive pavēre, perfect active pāvī); second conjugation, no supine stem[1] Ovid has the participial genitive plural paventum.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pawē- (“to be frightened”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pow-eh₁- (“to fear”).[3][1] Cognate with Old Irish omun (“fear”) and Middle Welsh ouyn (“fear”), from Proto-Celtic ⟨*ofno-⟩, and úath (“fear”).[3] Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet instead take it as a stative counterpart of paviō (“to strike”), “to be struck”, which the OLD and Lewis and Short also mention.[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author,[3] as the Amphitruo: “they raise their heads, both of them (the snakes)” – “oh dear!” – “don't be afraid”.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to be frightened or terrified, as in Plautus, and in Juvenal to show one's fear; with an object it is to be afraid of something, as in the Cistellaria, “I fear this and I dread that, so wholly am I in terror”.[4][2] Festus records that the ancients said corn “feared” when it did not come out of the sheath properly.[4]

Church Latin glosses it “fear, tremble with fear, quake”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[4][3][6]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of expressing fear.[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be frightened, be terrified, tremble with fear.[4][1][5]
  2. (transitive) To fear, dread.[4][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de