Etymologically
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perinde

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Forms

perinde (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of per- and inde (“from there, thence”).[2][1][3] The TLL notes that, unlike proinde (“therefore”), with which manuscripts often confuse it, it lacks the inferential sense “therefore” in early Latin and has no old form in ⟨-in⟩.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.[3] In the Stichus it is a correlative: as a man's fortune stands, so does he treat his friends (ut … perinde).[2]

Semantic evolution

It marks the agreement of two things, “in the same way (as)”, with ⟨ut⟩, ⟨atque⟩ or ⟨quasi⟩, as Plautus' “you treat your absent husbands just as if they were here”, and alone “correspondingly, likewise”.[2][5] With a negative, as in Tacitus, nōn perinde is “not particularly, not as much as one might expect”.[2] It also marks equal degree, “as much as, equally”, as in Pliny the Elder.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “in like manner, just as”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus with ⟨ut⟩ and ⟨quasi⟩.[2][3]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of “likewise”.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero with ⟨atque⟩.[2][3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of “not particularly”.[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. In the same manner (as), just as, perinde ac sī, just as if.[2][1][5]
  2. Correspondingly, likewise, nōn perinde, not particularly.[2][6]
  3. To an equal degree (as), as much (as), equally.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c 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