perplexus

Forms

perplexus (feminine perplexa, neuter perplexum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the participle of an unattested compound ⟨*perplectō⟩, from per- (“through”) and plectō (“to plait, twine”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces plectō to Proto-Italic *plekt- and Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-t-e/o- (“to plait, twine”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek πλέκω (plékō, “to braid, twine”) and Old High German flehtan (“to plait”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who in the Miles gloriosus has a character ask what madness makes the other call him by a wrong, muddled name.^[2] De Vaan dates the adjective from Lucretius.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means entangled, intertwined: Lucretius has atoms hampered by their own entangled shapes,^[2][6] Virgil the tangled path of a wood,^[6] and the Vulgate entwined sinews in Job.^[6] Figuratively it is complicated and hard to sort out: in Livy envoys say they do not know what is complicated about their embassy, since they have come simply to ask for friendship,^[2] and Livy calls a prophetic poem obscure, not only because the future is uncertain but also more puzzling in its kind of writing.^[2] Lewis & Short note it is not in Cicero or Caesar.^[6] The English perplex comes from it, through the earlier adjective perplex.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a muddled name.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of entangled atoms.^[2][6][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a tangled path.^[6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a cryptic poem.^[2]
• late 14th century – The English adjective perplex appears; the verb perplex follows in the 1590s.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Entangled, intertwined; muddled, mistaken.^[2][6][1]
2. (figurative) Complicated, intricate, hard to sort out;^[2][6][1] (of words) baffling, cryptic.^[2][6][1]

Word family

• perplexim
• perplexitās
• perplexor
• perplexē

Related words

• plectō
• amplector
• complector
• English perplex

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com