Etymologically
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perpello

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈpɛl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈpɛl.lo][1]

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]

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