pervetus

Forms

pervetus (genitive perveteris); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + vetus (“old”), with the intensive prefix.^[2][3][1] De Vaan connects vetus with the noun for “year”, Proto-Italic *wetos- (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *uet-os- (“year”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”), Sanskrit वत्सर (vatsará-, “year”) and Lithuanian vẽtušas (“old”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who uses it about ten times, always in prose;^[3] in the Verrines he calls Segesta a very old town in Sicily: Segesta est oppidum pervetus in Siciliā.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is used of things that have lasted a long time, such as a wooden statue, a friendship, or watchtowers in the Bellum Africum,^[2][3] and in medical writers of old wine and old nuts.^[2][3] The elder Seneca has a ship very old and worn by the sea.^[2] It also refers to the distant past: Cicero speaks of very old writers and of examples from very old times.^[2] The TLL notes that it is usually neutral or favourable, but now and then contemptuous.^[3]

A wine jar found at Vindonissa is labelled as very old Surrentine wine,^[3] and Augustine uses the neuter plural for very old and familiar stories from Scripture.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a very old town, a very old friendship and very old writers.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of wine.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of nuts kept a long time.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of old stories from Scripture.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That has lasted a long time, very old.^[2][6]
2. Belonging to the distant past, very ancient.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn