periurus

Forms

periūrus (feminine periūra, neuter periūrum, superlative periūrissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The OLD files it under the form pēiūrus (also pēiiūrus).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from per- and iūs (“law, oath”), like perfidus;^[1][3][4] the TLL explains it as one who deceives through an oath,^[4] and the OLD derives the form ⟨pēiūrus⟩ from the verb pēierō (“to swear falsely”).^[2] De Vaan, following Leumann, explains the alternation between ⟨-iūr-⟩ and ⟨-ier-⟩ by contamination of ⟨periūrāre⟩ with ⟨pēierāre⟩ “to make worse”, from pēius.^[5] He traces iūs to Proto-Italic *jowos (“oath, law”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ieu-os, an s-stem from a word meaning “vital force, eternity”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[5][6] who says that whoever wants to meet a perjured man should go to the Comitium.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means one who has broken an oath, perjured, and in general false or lying;^[2][3][1] Plautus uses the superlative of pimps.^[2][3][1] Cicero asks what the difference is between a perjurer and a liar, and Virgil speaks of perjured Troy and the arts of perjured Sinon.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “oath-breaking, false, lying”,^[7] and it occurs in medieval formularies and laws.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of perjured men.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the perjurer and the liar.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of perjured Troy.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Perjured, oath-breaking.^[2][3][1][7]
2. False, lying.^[1][7]

Word family

• periūrium
• periūrō

Related words

• iūs
• perfidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson