pervigilium

Forms

pervigilium n (genitive pervigiliī or pervigilī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

According to the OLD and Wiktionary it is from Latin pervigil (“always watchful”) + -ium;^[2][1] the TLL from the verb pervigilō (“to stay awake all night”).^[3] pervigil is formed from per- and vigil (“awake, watchful”),^[2] which de Vaan groups with vigeō (“to be vigorous”), from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eǵ-eh₁- (“to be strong”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius has the earliest example, with the genitive pervigilī, of a long spell of keeping watch.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It names a night spent awake: Seneca writes of continual sleepless nights,^[2] and Pliny the Elder and Justin use it of watching or of weariness from it.^[5] Its second sense is an all-night religious festival, a vigil: Livy tells of a camp left unguarded during a vigil,^[2][5] and Tacitus, Suetonius and Petronius speak of celebrating or proclaiming one.^[2][5] A short anonymous Latin poem is called the Pervigilium Veneris.^[5]

The grammarian Charisius notes that it is neuter in Latin but its Greek counterpart is feminine, and the TLL records feminine and masculine forms.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a vigil or the eve of a feast,^[6] and in British medieval Latin John of Salisbury uses it of nights of study.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of keeping watch.^[2][3][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of an all-night festival.^[2][5][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of sleepless nights.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of celebrating a vigil.^[2][5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A watch kept all night; staying awake, sleeplessness.^[2][5]
2. An all-night religious festival, a vigil.^[2][5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A vigil, the eve of a feast.^[6]

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 l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 g h 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. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de