Etymologically
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peiero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛj.jɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.je.ro][1]

Forms

peierō (present infinitive peierāre, perfect active peierāvī, supine peierātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled peiierō (usual in Plautus), pēiūrō, perierō and periūrō.[2][3]

Etymology

The OLD derives it from per- and iūrō (“to swear”).[2][3] The TLL objects that the form ⟨peierāre⟩ cannot contain ⟨per⟩ or ⟨iūrāre⟩, and takes it as from Latin peior (“worse”);[4] Wiktionary likewise connects it with that word, originally “to debase oneself”, and says it was later reanalysed as ⟨periūrō⟩.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD notes the spelling ⟨peii-⟩ as usual in Plautus,[2] who also uses it of lying in general.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to swear falsely, perjure oneself: Cicero explains that swearing what is false is not always perjury, but not doing what one has sworn in the set form is.[3] With an accusative it is to swear falsely by: Lucan's man who swears falsely by the waters of the Styx, Pliny the Elder's people who swear falsely by Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol, and Catullus' Vatinius who swears falsely by his consulship.[3][2] Horace's iūs pēierātum is a false oath.[2][3] In Plautus it also means simply to lie.[3] The Vulgate has the older form periūrō.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero on false oaths.[3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a false oath.[2]
  • 39–65 AD – Lucan of swearing falsely by the Styx.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To swear falsely, perjure oneself.[2][3][1]
  2. To swear falsely by (a god, a thing).[2][3]
  3. (Plautus) To lie.[3]

Word family

  • expeiūrō
  • imperiūrātus
  • peieratio

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften