Etymologically
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perambulo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛˈram.bʊ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [peˈram.bu.lo][1]

Forms

perambulō (present infinitive perambulāre, perfect active perambulāvī, supine perambulātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through”) + ambulō (“to walk”).[2][3][4] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *ala- (“to wander”), Proto-Indo-European *h₂elh₂- (“to wander”), with ⟨amb-⟩, “around”; he compares Umbrian amb-oltu (“must go around”) and Ancient Greek ἀλάομαι (aláomai, “to wander, roam”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it in Plautus,[5] whose Mostellaria has qualubet perambula aedis oppido tamquam tuas, “walk about the house wherever you like, just as if it were yours”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it rarely in Plautus, Catullus, Varro, Horace, Ovid and the two Senecas,[3] and Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose.[7] Varro writes of people who have travelled through many lands and Horace of an ox roaming the fields safely;[2][6] Ovid says cold runs through the limbs.[2][6] Catullus and Seneca use it of making the round of a series of places, and Seneca of a doctor visiting his patients in turn.[2][8] The Vulgate uses it of walking through the earth or a whole island,[7] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it is to walk about or pass through.[9] It survives in Romanian plimba and preumbla.[1] English perambulate (1560s) comes from its past participle.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of walking about a house.[2][5][11]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of making the round of bedrooms.[2][7][11]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace writes of an ox roaming the fields.[2][11]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a doctor visiting his patients.[2][8][11]
  • 1560s – English borrows perambulate from its past participle.[10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To walk about in, roam through; to travel through, tour.[2][7]
  2. (of things) To pass through, run through (the limbs).[2][6]
  3. To visit in turn, make the round of;[2][8] (of a doctor) to visit (patients).[2][8]
  • abambulō
  • ambulō
  • circumambulō
  • inambulō
  • praeambulō
  • deambulō
  • English perambulate

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de