perpello

Forms

perpellō (present infinitive perpellere, perfect active perpulī, supine perpulsum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“thoroughly”) + pellō (“to push, drive”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces pellō to Proto-Italic *pelna- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *pl-n(e)-h₂- (“to approach”), with a shift from bringing near to pushing.^[4] Festus glossed it with persuāsit and impulit.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on,^[3] whose Bacchides has a character boast of driving the clever old man with clever tricks to believe him in everything.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to prevail on or constrain someone to do something, usually with ut, as Terence's “never stopped urging and begging until prevailing”.^[2][5] The TLL finds it in Plautus, Terence, Nigidius and Sallust, but often only in Livy and Tacitus;^[3][5] Lewis & Short note that Curtius always uses it with ut and that Tacitus has it with an infinitive.^[3][5] Tacitus also uses it of enforcing a state of affairs, as earlier emperors had forced Roman knights into the arena by money or force.^[2] Its literal sense, to push violently, is rare, in a fragment of Nigidius.^[5] Church Latin glosses it urge, drive, compel, prevail on.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of driving an old man to believe a trick.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of prevailing by persuasion.^[5][7]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of inducing someone with the hope of a bargain.^[5][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, who uses it often.^[3][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of enforcing a state of affairs.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prevail on, constrain, compel to do something.^[2][5][1]
2. To enforce a state of affairs.^[2]
3. To strike or push violently; to drive all the way.^[5][2][1]

Related words

• appellō
• aspellō
• compellō
• dēpellō
• dispellō
• expellō
• impellō
• interpellō
• pellō
• prōpellō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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