Etymologically
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perpurgo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈpuːr.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈpur.ɡo][1]

Forms

perpūrgō (present infinitive perpūrgāre, perfect active perpūrgāvī, supine perpūrgātum); first conjugation[1] Plautus has the older form perpūrigō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + pūrgō (“to clean”).[2][4][1] That verb was earlier ⟨pūrigō⟩; following Dunkel, de Vaan takes it to contain Proto-Italic *pūr “fire” (from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂-ur) rather than pūrus (“clean”), with the original sense “to lead the fire about” to purify something.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus, Cato and Cicero on.[4][5] In the Miles Gloriosus two characters promise to listen with ears well cleaned, perpūrigātīs auribus.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it is used of purging the bowels, from Cato on, and of freeing the body of harmful humours, in Celsus.[2] Cicero uses it reflexively,[3] and figuratively of a topic already dealt with thoroughly by earlier speakers in a trial.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cleansed ears.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of purging the bowels.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a topic dealt with once and for all.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of purging by bloodletting.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cleanse or purify thoroughly.[2][3]
  2. (medicine) To purge (the bowels) well; to free (the body) of harmful humours.[2]
  3. To deal with (a matter or topic) once and for all.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de