Etymologically
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perfigo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈfiː.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈfiː.ɡo][1]

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