pertusus

Forms

pertūsus (feminine pertūsa, neuter pertūsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Plautus also has the spelling pertussus.^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin pertundō (“to bore a hole through, perforate”).^[1][2][3] The verb is formed from Latin per- + tundō (“to beat, pound”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[1][3] in a proverbial phrase about wasted words: in pertussum ingerimus dicta dolium, “we are pouring our words into a jar with a hole in it”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it described things with a hole or holes in them: Cato, in a speech, lists ladles and watering pots with holes beside chamber pots without handles,^[1] Lucretius speaks of pleasures that ran away as if poured into a leaky vessel,^[1] and Seneca has gambling with a perforated dice box.^[1] Juvenal uses it of a cloak in the sense “ragged”.^[1]

In Medieval Latin it was also used as a noun, for a bunghole and for a hole in a wall.^[4] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense “perforated, with holes”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the proverbial “jar with a hole in it”.^[1][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato, in a speech, speaks of vessels with holes.^[1][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius compares pleasures to the contents of a leaky vessel.^[1][3]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a ragged cloak.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a hole or holes in it, perforated, leaky.^[1][5]
2. Of clothing: ragged, torn.^[1]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A bunghole.^[4]
2. (Medieval Latin) A hole in a wall.^[4]

Related words

• pertundō

Usage notes

The epitome of Festus by Paulus explains that a “jar with a hole in it”, said humorously, means the belly.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson