percolopo

Forms

percolopō (present infinitive percolopāre, perfect active percolopāvī, supine percolopātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- + colaphus (“a punch, a blow with the fist”) with the ending of first-conjugation verbs,^[1][2][3] using a popular form ⟨colop-⟩ of the noun.^[1][2] The TLL refers to studies of the colloquial language of Petronius for it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It occurs only in Petronius (before 66 AD), in the phrase sic istos percolopabant, “so they used to beat those men”.^[2][1][4]

Semantic evolution

It never spread beyond this one passage of the Satyricon;^[2] the OLD defines it as striking with the hand, cuffing.^[1]

Timeline

• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it once, in the Satyricon.^[2][1][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To beat with the fists, cuff, box someone's ears.^[1][3][2]

Related words

• colaphus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de