peredo

Forms

peredō (present infinitive peredere or perēsse, perfect active perēdī, supine perēsum or perēssum or perēstum); third conjugation, irregular alternative forms^[1] The participle is spelled peressus in manuscripts of Lucretius and Virgil.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + edō¹ (“to eat”).^[3][1][2] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *ed- (“to eat”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁éd-mi (“to eat”), and compares Oscan edum (“to eat”), Ancient Greek ἔδω (édō, “to eat, devour”) and Sanskrit अद्मि (ádmi).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in a fragment of Plautus about the drone in the hive that eats up the bees' food, fucum in alveo, apibus qui peredit cibum.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a poetic word.^[7] Besides eating up food, it is used of natural forces that eat away or wear down: rocks eaten by brine in Lucretius, fire that does not consume Aetna in Horace, stone worn by water in Tibullus, fleeces eaten away by disease in Virgil.^[3][8] Figuratively it is used of feelings that consume a person: Catullus' multis languoribus peresus, and Virgil's quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit, “those whom harsh love has consumed with cruel wasting”.^[3][8] Prudentius uses it of eating up quinque panes et gemellos pisces, “five loaves and twin fishes”.^[7][5] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means “to eat up, consume”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a drone eating the bees' food.^[3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of rocks eaten away by salt.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of love consuming its victims.^[3][6]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of eating up loaves and fishes.^[7][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To eat up, devour completely.^[3][7]
2. (of natural forces or disease) To eat away, corrode, consume.^[3][8]
3. (figurative, of emotions) To consume, waste.^[3]

Usage notes

A separate perēdō, compounded with ēdō, “to give out”, is known only from an old poet quoted by Sidonius Apollinaris, meaning “to publish”.^[7][5][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson