perpes

Forms

perpes (genitive perpetis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin per- + petō (“to make for, seek”), like praepes.^[2][1][3] The TLL suggests instead, with a question mark, that it is a poets' shortening of perpetuus, with which it agrees in meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[3] In the Amphitruo a speaker says quievi in navi noctem perpetem, “I rested on the ship the livelong night”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL counts three uses in Plautus and two in Pacuvius, after which the word returns only in the 2nd century AD, in verse and prose.^[4] Festus remarks that the poets said perpetem for perpetuo.^[4][5] It meant “continuous, lasting”, and of a stretch of time “the whole of, the livelong”.^[2][5] Apuleius speaks of the moon's own perpetual brightness, and Prudentius of a stream flowing with unceasing gore.^[5]

Most attested forms are the accusative and ablative singular, and there is no comparative or superlative.^[4] Manuscripts often confuse it with perpetim and praepes.^[4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means perpetual, never-ending.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the livelong night.^[2][5][7]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it of a lasting bond.^[2][4][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of perpetual brightness and silence.^[5][7]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius writes per annum perpetem, “through the whole year”.^[5][7]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of an unceasing stream of blood.^[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unbroken in time, lasting, continuous, perpetual.^[2][5][6]
2. Of a period of time: the whole of, from beginning to end; the livelong.^[2][5]

Word family

• perpetim

Related words

• perpetuus
• praepes

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de