Etymologically
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pernocto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈnɔk.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈnɔk.to][1]

Forms

pernoctō (present infinitive pernoctāre, perfect active pernoctāvī, supine pernoctātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pernox (“lasting all night”) + -ō,[2] or formed directly from per- and nox (“night”), like peragrō.[3][1] De Vaan traces nox to Proto-Italic *nok(w)-t- and Proto-Indo-European *nógʷʰ-t-s (“night”), cognate with Ancient Greek νύξ (núx) and Lithuanian naktìs.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Plautus, then in Terence and Cicero;[3] Plautus' Truculentus has noctem pernoctāre perpetem, to spend the whole night through.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to spend the night somewhere or with someone, as Varro says one must not spend the night outdoors, Cicero of a man staying the night at a place, and Livy of spending the night outside the walls.[5] Ovid uses it of a letter that will spend the night with the beloved instead of the writer.[5] The grammarian Priscian derives it from nox.[3] It lives on in Italian pernottare, Catalan pernuytar and Portuguese pernoitar.[3] Stelten gives “spend the night”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of spending the whole night.[5][3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of staying the night.[5][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a letter staying the night.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To spend or pass the night (in a place, with someone).[2][5][1][6]
  2. To guard a place all night.[2]

Word family

  • pernoctatio

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 f g 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
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de