Etymologically
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pertusus

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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]

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