Etymologically
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pereo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛ.re.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.re.o][1]

Forms

pereō (present infinitive perīre, perfect active periī or perīvī, supine peritum); irregular conjugation, impersonal in the passive[1] Contracted perfect forms (perīstī, perit, perīsse) are frequent;[2][3] Apuleius has perīvit.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- + eō (“to go”), “to go through”, hence “to pass away”.[2][1][3] The verb “to go” continues Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius writes virgō pereat innocēns? “shall an innocent girl perish?”[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Perīre means “to vanish, disappear” and “to be wasted” (perit opera “it is a waste of trouble”).[2] Of persons it means “to perish, die”, with exaggeration “to pine away” and “to be madly in love” with someone, and “to be ruined”: periī! “I am lost!”.[2][1] Of things it means “to be destroyed”, and of circumstances “to come to an end”.[2]

Wiktionary also gives “to leak, be absorbed”.[1]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius: virgō pereat innocēns?[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: benignitātēs hominum periēre, “people's kindness has died out”.[2][5]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a tree that perishes.[2][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: periit, abiit, nāvem cōnscendit, “he has vanished, gone, boarded a ship”.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pass from view, vanish, disappear.[2][1][6]
  2. To be wasted;[2] perit opera, it is a waste of trouble.[2]
  3. To perish, die.[2][1][6]
  4. To pine away; to be madly in love (with).[2][1]
  5. To be ruined;[2] periī!, I am lost![2]
  6. (of things) To be destroyed;[2] (of circumstances) to come to an end.[2]
  7. To leak; to be absorbed.[1]

Word family

  • compereo
  • dēpereō
  • dispereō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson