perfigo

Forms

perfīgō (present infinitive perfīgere, perfect active perfīxī, supine perfīxum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through”) + fīgō (“to fix, pierce”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short find it only in Lucretius.^[4] In book 6 he says that lightning passes through many things without harming them and pierces many others (multaque perfigit),^[3][4] although some manuscripts read perfrigit or perfregit there.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius also uses the participle figuratively: a cow pierced with longing for her sacrificed calf (desiderio perfixa iuvenci),^[5][3] and the placid nature of cattle, not pierced by the darts of fear (telis perfixa pavoris).^[3][4] Later the TLL records it in a 3rd-century curse tablet from Carthage, which calls on the powers to pierce and destroy a beast-fighter.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of lightning and, figuratively, of longing and fear.^[3][4][6]
• 3rd century AD – A curse tablet from Carthage asks the powers to pierce a beast-fighter.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pierce through, transfix.^[2][4]
2. (figurative, in the participle perfīxus) Pierced, deeply struck by an emotion.^[4][7]

Usage notes

The manuscripts confuse it with praefīgō “fix in front”.^[3]

References

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