percello
Pronunciation
Forms
percellō (present infinitive percellere, perfect active perculī, supine perculsum); third conjugation[1] Ammianus has the perfect perculsī for perculī.[2]
Etymology
It is from per- “through, thoroughly” and ⟨*cellō⟩ “to strike”, Proto-Italic *kelnō, from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat, break”).[3][1] It is related to clādēs “disaster”, clāva “club” and procella “storm”, and the OLD compares Ancient Greek κλάω (kláō, “to break”).[1][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The OLD's earliest citation is from Ennius, of striking with fear.[3] Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.[4]
Semantic evolution
It meant to knock down, overturn, fell, as in Plautus and Terence; to strike down with a weapon; in war to overpower at a stroke, as in Livy; to afflict with disaster, overthrow, as in Cicero; to strike with fear, dismay, demoralise, as in Ennius; and to drive someone into an action, as in Apuleius.[3][5]
In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to repel, shatter, ruin, strike down, overturn, daunt.[6]
Timeline
- 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.[3][4]
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of knocking down.[3][4]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of disaster.[3][4]
Meanings
Verb
- To knock down, overturn.[3]
- To strike down; to overpower.[3]
- To ruin, overthrow.[3]
- To dismay, demoralise.[3]
Word family
- perculsus
Related words
- recellō
- clādēs
- procella
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson