perdoceo

Forms

perdoceō (present infinitive perdocēre, perfect active perdocuī, supine perdoctum); second conjugation^[1] Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with doceō and ēdoceō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + doceō (“to teach”).^[3][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of doceō, which goes back to Proto-Italic *dok-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-ei̯e/o- (“to make someone accept something”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius on;^[4][2][5] in Plautus it means to instruct someone thoroughly, as in a promise to hand someone over cleverly and thoroughly coached.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also uses it for teaching a skill: poverty teaches all the arts.^[3][6] Cicero calls something a hard matter to teach thoroughly, Lucretius says that the sun and moon taught men the turning of the seasons, and Ovid has Apollo teaching mortals what is useful.^[7][5] Quintilian speaks of people who go on teaching their own folly, and an inscription speaks of a bronze tablet that teaches everything.^[6] The TLL notes that it is rare in classical Latin and more frequent in Christian writers.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[5][8]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for thorough instruction.^[3][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the sun and moon teaching men.^[5][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a matter hard to teach thoroughly.^[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inform (someone) thoroughly; to show, demonstrate.^[3][5]
2. To teach thoroughly, instruct.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de