perfungor

Forms

perfungor (present infinitive perfungī, perfect active perfūnctus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + fungor (“to perform, discharge”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces fungor to Proto-Italic *fung-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰu-n-g- (“to be of use, be used”), comparing Sanskrit भुञ्जते (bhuñjaté, “they benefit, enjoy”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citations are Cicero's, as in De oratore of an old man who has discharged high offices and public duties.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to carry through or discharge one's part, mostly with an ablative and occasionally with an accusative: Cicero writes of performing a duty of necessity and heavy labour, and of a man who has held the highest offices and borne the greatest toils.^[2][5] In the perfect, often with iam, it means to have done with something, to have got through it: Cicero has Hercules, his labours already done.^[2] From that comes the sense of enduring or going through something.^[1] Stelten gives "fulfil, perform, discharge" for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of public duties discharged and of Hercules' labours done.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry through, perform, discharge (a duty or office).^[2][5][1][6]
2. (perfect) To have finished with, be done with; to go through, endure.^[2][1]

Word family

• perfunctiō
• perfūnctōrius

Related words

• fungor
• dēfungor
• perfūnctōriē

References

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