Etymologically
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peruro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛˈruː.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [peˈruː.ro][1]

Forms

perūrō (present infinitive perūrere, perfect active perussī, supine perustum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + ūrō (“to burn”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ūrō to Proto-Italic *ouse/o- (“to burn”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eus-e/o- (“to burn”).[4] He compares Sanskrit ओषति (oṣati, “to burn, scorch”) and Ancient Greek εὕω (heúō, “to singe”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro, Cicero, Catullus and Lucretius on.[3] Varro uses it of stars that signal something on earth by scorching it, like a brand on cattle.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius has fire that licks and burns up many things.[2][6] Livy writes of fields burnt far and wide, Propertius of hair scorched by the African sun.[6] Ovid uses it of the fire of love, Curtius of thirst that tormented the wounded, Columella of seeds that parch the soil.[2] Horace has a side galled by ropes, and Seneca uses it of an insult about poverty that stung some people.[2] The TLL notes that it is frequent in Seneca, Columella and Lucan, mostly in the perfect participle.[3] Church Latin glosses it to parch, burn up.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of stars that scorch.[2][3][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of fire burning things up.[2][3][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of burnt fields.[6][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the fire of love.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a stinging insult.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To burn up, consume with fire; to burn through.[2][6][7][1]
  2. To inflame with passion.[2]
  3. Of the sun, thirst or fever, to scorch, parch; of cold or a caustic, to burn; to dry up.[2][6]
  4. To make sore, chafe; figuratively, to gall, irritate.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson