perstringo

Pronunciation

• Classical: [pɛrˈstrɪŋ.ɡoː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [perˈstriŋ.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

perstringō (present infinitive perstringere, perfect active perstrīnxī, supine perstrictum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through, thoroughly”) + stringō (“to draw tight; to strip, graze”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan explains stringō as a merger of separate roots: a sense to tie or tighten, from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ-e/o- (“to draw, tie”), and a sense to strip off or graze, from Proto-Indo-European *stri-n-g- (“to brush, strip”).^[4] Both senses appear in this compound.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato has it first, of binding a vine tightly.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to bind tightly or contract all over, as Ovid's tree closes round a woman's swelling womb.^[2][5] More often it is to graze or brush along a surface, as Cicero asks what soil is so poor that a plough cannot scratch it, and Virgil uses it of grazing a thigh.^[2][5] Figuratively it is to hurt a reputation or someone's feelings, to censure, and to touch on a subject briefly, as when Cicero says the gravity of the matter will not let him pass over a crime in a few words.^[2] Horace uses it of the threatening blare of horns that grates on the ears.^[2] Manuscripts often confuse it with praestringō.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of binding a vine.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of grazing the soil and of censure.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of sounds grating on the ears.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of grazing a thigh.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bind tightly; to draw together, contract.^[2][5][1]
2. To graze, brush; to blunt or dull by grazing.^[2][5][7][1]
3. To hurt the reputation or feelings of; to censure, reprove.^[2][1]
4. To skirt; to touch on briefly.^[2][1]
5. Of sounds, to grate on the senses.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson