pererro

Forms

pererrō (present infinitive pererrāre, perfect active pererrāvī, supine pererrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + errō (“to wander”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces errō to Proto-Italic *ers-āje- (“to be restless”), a verb made from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers-o/h₂- (“erring, error”), perhaps from a root “to flow”, so first a flowing to and fro.^[4] Cognate with Old High German irren (“to be mistaken”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Virgil,^[3] in whose Aeneid Aeneas is told that he will found walls once he has wandered over the sea.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to wander through or over an area, to roam or traverse, as Horace who often roams the deceitful forum in the evening.^[2][5] The TLL counts six examples in Virgil, few in Horace, many in Ovid and Seneca.^[3] Of things it means to wander about a place, as Ovid's streams that wander through the Paelignian fields.^[2] It also means to go over something with the senses or the mind, as in Virgil's “she surveys him all over with her eyes”.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it intransitively of an attempt at breeding that goes wrong.^[2] Glossaries explain it with perambulō and peragrō.^[3]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of wandering over the sea and of looking someone over.^[2][3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of roaming the forum.^[5][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of streams wandering through fields.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a failed conception.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wander through or over, roam, traverse.^[2][5][1]
2. Of things, to wander about a place.^[2]
3. To go over with the eyes or the mind, survey, review.^[2][1]
4. Of an attempt, to go wrong, fail.^[2]

Related words

• errō
• error

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de