Etymologically
Log in

permisceo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 23:44. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈmɪs.ke.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈmiʃ.ʃe.o][1]

Forms

permisceō (present infinitive permiscēre, perfect active permiscuī, supine permixtum or permistum); second conjugation[1] The participle is permixtus or permistus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- + misceō (“to mix”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨misceō⟩ to Proto-Italic *mik-sk-e/o- (“to mix”) and Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sk-e/o-, cognate with Ancient Greek μείγνυμι (meígnumi, “to mix”), Lithuanian maišýti (“to mix”) and Old English miscian (“to mix”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, in a recipe: ōvum ūnum addito et ūnā permiscētō bene, “add one egg and mix well”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to mix thoroughly, of ingredients and of immaterial things, as Cicero's fortune mixed with toil and misery.[2] Of people it is to bring together closely, as Sallust's light troops mixed in with the cavalry, to unite by kinship (Sallust on the Africans), and to embroil in events (Lucan).[2] It is to mix up or confound, as war chariots throwing ranks into disorder, and in Cicero to treat as the same or merge accounts.[2] It is to throw into confusion: Pericles was said to thunder, lighten and throw Greece into turmoil, and Apuleius has a guilty man confused by his conscience.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “mix, commingle”.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of mixing ingredients.[2][5]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of mixing troops.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of confounding and of Pericles stirring up Greece.[2][5]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of a confused mind.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To mix thoroughly, mingle, blend.[2][1][6]
  2. To bring together; to unite (by kinship); to embroil.[2][1]
  3. To mix up, confound; to merge.[2][1]
  4. To throw into confusion, disturb; to bewilder.[2][1]

Word family

  • impermisceō
  • impermixtus
  • permixtim
  • permixtiō
  • permixtē
  • permistus
  • permixtus
  • admisceō
  • commisceō
  • ēmisceō
  • immisceō
  • intermisceō
  • misceō
  • prōmiscuus
  • remisceō

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 h i j k l m n o 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. ^ 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson