pervagor

Forms

pervagor (present infinitive pervagārī, perfect active pervagātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] The Rhetorica ad Herennium has the active form pervagō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through”) + vagor (“to wander”).^[2][3][1] vagor comes from vagus (“wandering”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wago- and, with a question mark, Proto-Indo-European *Huog-o-.^[4] He compares Old Norse vakka (“to totter”) and Old High German wankōn (“to totter, stagger”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and often in Cicero,^[3] who in the Verrines says that pirates' boats roamed about the harbour of Syracuse: praedonum naviculae pervagatae sunt.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to wander about, rove or range, and with an object to wander through or range over a place:^[2][5] Caesar has men ordered to range through all places, and Livy has people wandering through their houses.^[5][2] Livy also uses it of crossing a lagoon by a winding route.^[2] Of conditions it is to spread widely, as fires in Vitruvius spreading over the fields,^[2] and of news and fame, which Cicero says spread to the farthest lands.^[2] The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of running over a series of places in the mind.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of pirates' boats roaming a harbour and of fame spreading.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of wandering through houses.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wander about, rove, range.^[2][5][1]
2. To wander through, range over (a place).^[2][5][1]
3. Of conditions or news: to spread widely, pervade.^[2][1]
4. To run over in the mind, review.^[2]

Related words

• vagor
• vagus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de