pertimesco

Forms

pertimēscō (present infinitive pertimēscere, perfect active pertimuī); third conjugation, no supine stem^[1] Medieval manuscripts sometimes spell it pertimisco.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from per- (“thoroughly”), timeō (“to fear”) and the inchoative suffix -scō;^[3][1] Wiktionary takes it from pertimeō.^[3][1] The TLL compares extimēscō, and notes that a simple ⟨timēscō⟩ is found only in the Tironian notes.^[2] De Vaan finds no etymology for ⟨timeō⟩: the link with words for “stiff” that Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny hesitantly made is hardly possible.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Bacchides: periī, pertimuī miser, “I'm done for, I've taken fright, poor me”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to become very frightened, used absolutely (Plautus, Terence), with an accusative of what one dreads (Afranius: pertimuistis cassam terriculam, “you were scared of an empty bugbear”), and with nē (Cicero).^[3][1] Cicero has it often in the transitive sense “to fear greatly, dread”, as of a scruple Verres did not dread.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it, beside pertimeō, “fear greatly”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: pertimuī miser.^[3][7]
• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius with an accusative.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero with nē and as “dread”.^[3][5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become very frightened, take fright.^[3][1][6]
2. (transitive) To fear greatly, dread.^[3][1][5]

Related words

• timeō
• extimēscō
• timor

References

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