Etymologically
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pero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpeː.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.ro][1]

Forms

pērō m (genitive pērōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3][4] Leumann, cited by the TLL, suspected a borrowing from a derivative of Greek πήρα (pḗra, “leather bag”),[3] and Wiktionary likewise suggests a link with pēra (“bag, satchel”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges and the TLL find it first in Cato's Origines, which Festus quotes: those who had held a curule office wore red mullei shoes, the others perōnēs.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It named a thick boot of raw hide,[2][6] reaching to the calf, laced in front and with the hair still on,[5] worn especially by soldiers, wagoners, peasants and shepherds.[6][5] Virgil speaks of a crūdus pērō, a boot of raw hide,[6][5] and Juvenal of being covered in a high boot to walk over ice.[6] Apuleius has a country boy guarding his boots against the wet,[3] and Tertullian mocks the effeminate boots of the Venetian shoemakers.[6][3] The glossaries call it a rustic or hairy kind of shoe,[3] and Isidore of Seville lists perōnēs among rustic footwear.[5][3]

In medieval Latin Niermeyer records pero as a form of pēra, a bag.[7][4]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato contrasts the shoes of curule magistrates with the perōnēs of the others.[5][3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil speaks of a boot of raw hide.[6][5]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal mentions a high boot worn on the ice.[6][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian speaks of effeminate boots.[6][3]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville lists it among rustic footwear.[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thick boot of raw hide, worn by soldiers, peasants and wagoners.[2][6][5]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A bag (a form of pēra).[7]

Word family

  • peronātus

Usage notes

The proper name Pērō, the daughter of Neleus in Greek legend, is a different word, borrowed from Ancient Greek Πηρώ (Pērṓ) and declined Pērūs in the genitive;[2][5][4] Propertius has it.[2][5][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill