Etymologically
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perperam

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Forms

perperam (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is the feminine accusative of a rare adjective, from Latin perperus (“wrong”), with ⟨viam⟩, “way”, understood.[2][1] De Vaan thinks it possibly an adverb in ⟨-ām⟩ from ⟨*pero-⟩, “on the other side”, the source of Oscan perum (“without”), later strengthened with per-; or, in Nussbaum's analysis, ⟨*per-poro-⟩, “going wrong”.[3] The TLL doubts whether the adverb really comes from that adjective.[4] Döderlein, in the 19th century, took it as a reduplication of Ancient Greek παρά (pará).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.[6] In Plautus a character warns someone not to go to the wrong house by mistake.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means incorrectly, wrongly, amiss, of procedure or of information given: the OLD cites a herald who wrongly proclaimed someone not consul but general.[2] It is also by mistake, as in Plautus and in the Bellum Hispaniense.[2] Church Latin glosses it perversely, wrongly, falsely.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of going to the wrong house.[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Wrongly, incorrectly, amiss, falsely.[2][1][7]
  2. By mistake.[2]
  • perperus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from falsō: perperam is objectively wrong, incorrect in fact, while falsō is subjectively mistaken, as by a person in error.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson