perfrico

Forms

perfricō (present infinitive perfricāre, perfect active perfricuī, supine perfricātum or perfrictum); first conjugation^[1] Beside the perfect ⟨perfricuī⟩ there is a later ⟨perfricāvī⟩, and beside the participle ⟨perfricātus⟩ the form ⟨perfrictus⟩, used by Apuleius and Marcellus.^[2][3] Manuscripts sometimes spell it ⟨perfrig-⟩ or ⟨perfreg-⟩.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“thoroughly”) + fricō (“to rub”).^[3][2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of friō (“to crumble”); he takes fricō to presuppose an adjective Proto-Italic *fri-ko-, probably built beside *frio-, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰriH-o- (“cut”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit भ्रीणन्ति (bhrīṇánti, “they cut”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[4] whose treatise on farming uses it of rubbing all over.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to rub thoroughly or all over.^[3][6] The TLL notes that it is found from Cato, Cicero and Varro on and is frequent in medical writers, above all Celsus, Vegetius' veterinary manual and Marcellus;^[2] Celsus uses it of massaging the body, the limbs or the head, often with oil.^[6][7] Petronius has a face smeared all over with soot, and Apuleius eyes rubbed hard.^[8][7] Cicero's caput perfricans is a man scratching his head in embarrassment.^[5][7]

Rubbing the face to wipe away a blush gave the phrases os, frontem or faciem perfricare, to cast off shame and put on a bold face.^[3][5] Cicero uses cum os perfricuisti in the Tusculan Disputations, and the orator Calvus tells an opponent to rub his brow and call himself worthier than Cato.^[3] Martial writes of a woman who rubbed her brow and laid aside her shame, Quintilian of making the face shameless, and Seneca says flattery wipes away its own blushes and makes others blush.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of rubbing all over.^[5][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses os perfricare of casting off shame.^[3][9]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it often of massage.^[6][9]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses frontem perfricare of a shameless woman.^[3][9]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the participle ⟨perfrictus⟩ of rubbed eyes.^[3][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rub all over or thoroughly, massage; to smooth by rubbing.^[3][6]
2. To rub over (with something), smear.^[5][7]
3. (with os, frontem or faciem) To rub away one's blushes, cast off shame, show effrontery.^[3][5]

Word family

• perfrictiō

Related words

• affricō
• circumfricō
• cōnfricō
• dēfricō
• fricō
• īnfricō
• refricō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c 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 f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de