Etymologically
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perfuga

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Forms

perfuga m (genitive perfugae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from perfugiō (“to flee for refuge, desert”) with the ending -a of agent nouns.[2][3][4] The verb is a compound of per- and fugiō (“to flee”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *fug-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰug-i- (“to flee”), cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.[3] The OLD's earliest example is an agrarian law on land assigned to deserters.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is someone who goes over to the enemy, a deserter.[2][4] The jurist Aelius Gallus defines the perfuga as anyone, free, slave or enemy, who has gone over to the enemy of his own will, also called trānsfuga.[2][4] In Tacitus it is also a refugee or fugitive, as the island of Mona, a refuge for fugitives.[2][1]

Döderlein distinguishes the perfuga, who goes over as a traitor to his side, from the trānsfuga, who wavers and changes sides; both are usually thought of as soldiers, while the profugus is an exile and the fugitīvus a runaway from duty or master.[6] Church Latin glosses it “deserter, fugitive”.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – First recorded in Cicero.[3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of Mona as a refuge for fugitives.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A deserter who goes over to the enemy.[2][4][1][7]
  2. A refugee, fugitive.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson