percurro

Forms

percurrō (present infinitive percurrere, perfect active percucurrī, supine percursum); third conjugation^[1] The perfect is percucurrī or percurrī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from per- (“through”) and currō (“to run”).^[2][4] De Vaan derives ⟨currō⟩ from Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *krs-e/o- (“to run”), cognate with Old Irish carr (“vehicle”) and Ancient Greek ἐπίκουρος (epíkouros, “helper”), literally “running towards”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terence has “hurrying to you, I run to the forum” in the Andria.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to run or move quickly through or over a place, and to run through, as the veins in the Aetna that run through whole bodies.^[2][3] Of natural things it is to sweep over, as Lucretius' whirlwind racing over sea and land, and of sensations to pass through, as Apuleius' smell.^[2] It is to travel quickly through a place, as Lentulus' tour of his province, to run the eye over or skim, as Livy's pages of the annals, and to hold offices one after another, as Pliny the Younger's man who passed through the quaestorship, tribunate and praetorship.^[2][3][1] It is to touch in quick succession, as Lucretius' lips running over the reeds of a pipe, and to run over in words or thought, as Cicero's speech that runs briefly through matters.^[2][3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “run through, hasten to, persevere to the end, travel, look over”.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of running to the forum.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a whirlwind and of playing a pipe.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a speech running through matters.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of skimming the annals.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run through, hasten over; to run through (as a line).^[2][3][1][6]
2. To sweep over;^[2][1] (of sensations) to pass through.^[2][1]
3. To traverse, tour; to skim (with the eyes); to hold (offices) in turn.^[2][3][1][6]
4. To touch in quick succession, stroke.^[2][1]
5. To run over (in words), review.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• percursiō
• percursus
• percursō
• percursor

Related words

• accurrō
• antecurrō
• circumcurrō
• concurrō
• currō
• dēcurrō
• discurrō
• excurrō
• incurrō
• intercurrō
• cursus
• peragrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
5. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de