peragro

Forms

peragrō (present infinitive peragrāre, perfect active peragrāvī, supine peragrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + ager (“field, land”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ager to Proto-Italic *agro- (“field”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-ro- (“uncultivated field, pasture”), derived from the root “to drive”.^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós, “field”), Sanskrit अज्र (ájra-, “field”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌺𐍂𐍃 (akrs, “field”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in a historical play of Accius, where the Caleti scour the land with loud cries and menacing din.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to travel over every part of a territory, to wander through or scour it;^[2][5] Lewis & Short note it is classical and compare percurrō.^[2][5] Of news and the like it is to spread through, as Cicero's eloquence that sailed from the Piraeus and travelled through all the islands.^[2] Figuratively it is to go through something in the mind or in speech, as Cicero's searching out every hiding place of suspicion.^[2][1] Velleius uses the perfect participle in an active sense.^[2][5] Church Latin glosses it “visit, travel, pass through”.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a people scouring the land.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of eloquence spreading through the islands.^[2][7]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius uses the participle in an active sense.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To travel over every part of, wander through, traverse, scour.^[2][5][1]
2. Of news, to spread through.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) To go through with the mind or in speech.^[2][1]

Word family

• perāgrātiō
• peragratrix
• perāgrāns
• perāgranter

Related words

• ager
• peregrīnus

References

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