pertracto

Forms

pertractō (present infinitive pertractāre, perfect active pertractāvī, supine pertractātum); first conjugation^[1] The spelling pertrectō is also transmitted, for instance in manuscripts of Apuleius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + tractō (“to drag about, handle”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan explains tractō as formed from tractus, the past participle of trahō (“to draw, drag”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *traχe/o-; he finds its closest cognates in Celtic.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[2][5] in the sense of stroking or fingering something all over: in the Asinaria the phrase is si papillam pertractavit, “if he has fondled a breast”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From physical handling the verb passed to the mind: Cicero uses it of an orator who works upon the feelings and minds of his hearers, and of examining an opponent’s narrative carefully and in detail.^[2] In the De finibus he speaks of sounding out someone’s mind with every kind of reflection, and it came to mean studying or treating a subject thoroughly.^[6][7] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the senses of handling, treating, busying oneself with and investigating.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of fondling.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of working upon the minds of an audience and of examining a narrative in detail.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of feeling a person’s hand, as a physician does.^[9][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stroke or finger all over, to feel, handle.^[2][10]
2. (figurative) To work upon (the mind or feelings).^[2][7]
3. To examine in detail, study carefully, treat thoroughly.^[2][6][8]

Word family

• pertractātiō

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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press