perlustro

Forms

perlūstrō (present infinitive perlūstrāre, perfect active perlūstrāvī, supine perlūstrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through, thoroughly”) + lūstrō (“to purify; to go round, survey”).^[2][3][1] The TLL explains its senses from the different uses of the simple verb, with the ritual of purification by going round showing through in some of them.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on.^[3] In the Partitiones oratoriae he speaks of all the parts of a subject that are to be gone over in the mind (perlūstrandae animō).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Livy has it eight times,^[3] of a victorious army ranging over the enemy's fields and of men running about the streets to scan everything with their eyes.^[2][4] Velleius writes that all Germany was traversed by Roman arms under Tiberius,^[4][3] and in Phaedrus a fly boasts that it visits all the temples.^[3] Silius uses it nine times and Cassian twelve, but it is missing in Augustine, and manuscripts confuse it with illūstrō.^[3] Columella keeps the ritual sense of purifying thoroughly with sulphur, bitumen and a burning torch.^[2][4][5]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to traverse or pass over.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of going over a subject in the mind.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of armies and of scanning with the eyes.^[2][7]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius uses it of Germany overrun by Roman arms.^[4][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of purifying with sulphur.^[2][7]
• c. 360–c. 435 AD – Cassian uses it often.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To purify thoroughly (with a cleansing material).^[2][4][5]
2. To travel through, range over, traverse.^[2][4][8]
3. With oculīs: to run one's eyes over, scan, scrutinize.^[2][8]
4. With animō: to go over in the mind, ponder, study.^[2][8]

Related words

• lūstrō
• lūstrum²
• illūstrō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier