perlongus

Forms

perlongus (feminine perlonga, neuter perlongum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- + longus (“long”), with the intensifying prefix.^[2][3][1] longus goes back to Proto-Italic *(d)longo- and Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰ-o-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[4][5] where waiting for someone's arrival is said to be a very long business, that is, too long or tedious.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant very long, in time or in space: Cicero speaks of a very long interval and of a very long and not very safe road.^[2][6] The adverb perlongē “very far off” is in Terence, and the neuter perlongum is used as an adverb by Ausonius.^[6]

It continued in Medieval Latin, of length and of duration, and in the phrase “it is too long to” do something.^[7] It survives in Romanian prelung.^[3][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus calls a wait very long.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a very long interval and a very long road.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a long streak of cloud.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very long, in space or time.^[2][6]
2. Too long, tedious.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press