Etymologically
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perduco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈduː.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈduː.ko][1]

Forms

perdūcō (present infinitive perdūcere, perfect active perdūxī, supine perductum); third conjugation, irregular short imperative[1] Serenus Sammonicus has the imperative perdūce for perdūc.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through”) + dūcō (“to lead”), “to lead through”.[3][2][4][1] De Vaan traces dūcō to Proto-Italic *douke- and Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it for bringing someone round by persuasion: iam perdūcēbam illam ad mē suādēlā meā, “I was already winning her over with my persuasion”.[3][6] Terence has it for taking a person to a place.[3]

Semantic evolution

Perdūcō is to bring or conduct a person to a place, to bring before a court, of roads to lead to a place, and of a pimp to bring someone to another's bed.[3] It is also to convey things (water by an aqueduct), to win over by persuasion, to bring to a condition (Cicero: anger drove Ajax to madness and death), and to carry a ditch or wall from one point to another (Caesar).[3][1] In time it is to prolong, continue, keep alive.[3][1] It also means to bring an amount up or down to a figure, to smear or coat (Virgil), to cross out (in the jurists), and to drink off (Apuleius).[3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “lead to, bring to, guide, conduct”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: iam perdūcēbam illam ad mē.[3][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of taking a son to a house.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: anger ad furōrem mortemque perdūxit.[3][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of carrying a double ditch between camps.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lead, conduct, bring (to a place).[3][2][1][7]
  2. To convey (things).[3][1]
  3. To bring over, win over, persuade.[3][1]
  4. To bring (to a condition).[3][1]
  5. To extend, carry (a ditch, a wall).[3]
  6. To prolong, continue; to pass (time).[3][1]
  7. To bring (an amount) up or down (to).[3]
  8. To coat, smear over.[3][1]
  9. To cross out, erase; to drink off.[3][1]

Word family

  • perductiō
  • perductor
  • perductō
  • perductus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson