pervello

Forms

pervellō (present infinitive pervellere, perfect active pervellī); third conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + vellō (“to pluck, pull”).^[1][3] De Vaan reconstructs vellō as a nasal present of Proto-Indo-European *uelh₃- (“to strike”), though Schrijver prefers another preform.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL quotes it first from a comedy of Naevius, alii pervellit pedem (“with another he pinches a foot”), where Scaliger read percellit instead.^[3] De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Persa has ei, natis pervellit, “ow, he pinches my buttocks”.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense is a sudden sharp pull or pinch.^[1][2] Phaedrus has a countryman who tweaks a piglet's ear to make it squeal, and aurem pervellere, “to pull someone's ear”, became a proverbial phrase for reminding someone, used by Seneca and Valerius Maximus.^[3][2]

Figuratively it meant to stimulate the senses or the mind (Horace has radishes and lettuce that rouse a weary stomach),^[1][2] to cause a sudden pang of pain, as in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations,^[1][2] and to criticize sharply: in Cicero's De oratore the orator “picks at” the civil law.^[1][2] Seneca uses it of rousing a sluggish sense of gratitude, and Augustine of being troubled or distracted.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of pinching, if the manuscripts' reading is right.^[3][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has it of pinching someone's buttocks.^[1][3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a twinge of pain and of sharp criticism.^[1][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of food that stimulates the stomach.^[1][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the proverb aurem pervellere.^[3][2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of being troubled.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pull sharply, pinch, nip, twitch;^[1][2] aurem pervellere, to tweak someone's ear, to remind.^[1][2]
2. (figurative) To stimulate, rouse (the mind or senses).^[1][2]
3. (figurative) To cause a sudden twinge of pain.^[1][2]
4. (figurative) To criticize sharply, disparage.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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