Etymologically
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pervicax

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛr.wɪ.kaːks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛr.vi.kaks][1]

Forms

pervicāx (genitive pervicācis, adverb pervicāciter); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + vincō (“to conquer”) + -āx.[2][1][3] The TLL notes that pervicus and this adjective lack the idea of conquering, keeping an older sense of the root, “to contend, strive”.[4] De Vaan traces vincō to Proto-Italic *wink- (“to tie, bind; to overcome”) and Proto-Indo-European *ui-n-k- (“to bend, tie”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Terence,[3] in whose Hecyra a speaker asks whether someone was so obstinate as to prefer a child's death to a marriage made against their wish.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means persisting against opposition, determined, as Horace's persistent Thyiads; of conditions it is unremitting, as a disaster in Seneca's Oedipus, and of a thing firmly fixed, as the steady balance of a reed in Pliny the Elder.[2][5] More often it is pejorative: obstinate, stubborn, headstrong.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is not in Cicero or Caesar;[5] Tacitus uses it often, and in a good sense of a man steadfast in what is right.[5] Church Latin glosses it stubborn, obstinate.[6]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of obstinacy.[2][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of persistent Thyiads.[2]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of steadfastness in the right.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Persisting against opposition, determined, steadfast; unremitting; firmly fixed.[2][5][1]
  2. Obstinate, stubborn, headstrong.[2][5][1][6]

Word family

  • pervicācia
  • pervicāciter

Usage notes

Döderlein derives it, with a query, from vincere or vigēre, and contrasts pervicācia, persistence grounded in natural energy, with pertinācia, obstinacy as a fault.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper