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perforo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word perforo

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
96–55 BC, Lucretius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*bʰorH-ie/o-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛr.fɔ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛr.fo.ro][1]

Forms

perforō (present infinitive perforāre, perfect active perforāvī, supine perforātum); first conjugation[1] Lucretius divides it by tmesis, perque forāre.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + forō (“to bore”).[4][1][3] De Vaan traces forō to Proto-Italic *foraje/o- and, with a question mark, to Proto-Indo-European *bʰorH-ie/o- (“to pierce, strike”) or a noun meaning “hole”.[5] Cognate with Lithuanian bárti (“to scold, accuse”) and Old Norse berja (“to beat, hit”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Lucretius, Cicero and Varro on, and more often in Celsus, Columella and Pliny the Elder.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to make a hole in or through, to bore or pierce:[4] Cicero, quoted by Quintilian, speaks of boring a hole in a ship, and the Bellum Alexandrinum of holing and sinking a trireme.[2] Velleius has a cloak pierced by a lance, and Ovid two breasts pierced with one blow.[2] It also means to make a passage by piercing, as when Cicero says that we have two openings bored from the mind to the eyes.[4] In Church Latin it is to pierce, bore through, perforate.[6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, in tmesis.[3][2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of openings bored from the mind to the eyes.[4][7]
  • c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus, of a cloak pierced by a lance.[2][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of two breasts pierced with one blow.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bore or pierce through, to perforate.[4][2][1][6]
  2. To make a passage by piercing, to penetrate.[4][1]

Word family

  • perforaculum
  • perforātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Perforo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/perforo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·