Etymologically
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pertergeo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈtɛr.ɡe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈtɛr.d͡ʒe.o][1]

Forms

pertergeō (present infinitive pertergēre, perfect active pertersī, supine pertersum); second conjugation[1] A third-conjugation present pertergō is found in Chiron and Vegetius.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + tergeō (“to rub, wipe off”).[4][1][2][5] De Vaan reconstructs the simple verb as Proto-Italic *terg- and finds no certain cognates outside Italic.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucretius, who says that the air passing through the eyes as it were brushes the pupils: quasi perterget pupillās.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it of air and light lightly brushing the eyes,[4][3] a sense the TLL explains as the air seeming to clean the eyes as it passes.[2] Its usual sense was to wipe all over or wipe dry: Horace tells of the table being wiped with a purple cloth, where the TLL notes that Lucilius had used the simple tersit;[4][2] Columella uses it of wiping vessels with a sponge,[3][7] and Valerius Maximus of people who dreamt that some god was wiping their bodies with a sponge.[4][8]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of air brushing the pupils of the eyes.[4][9]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of wiping a table.[4][9]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of wiping vessels with a sponge.[3][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wipe all over, wipe dry, clean thoroughly.[4][3][8]
  2. To brush against, touch lightly.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de