pervinco

Forms

pervincō (present infinitive pervincere, perfect active pervīcī, supine pervictum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“thoroughly”) + vincō (“to conquer”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces vincō to Proto-Italic *wink- (“to tie, bind; overcome”) and Proto-Indo-European *ui-n-k- (“to bend, tie”), probably the same root as vinciō (“to bind”): bending someone could easily come to mean overcoming them.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it from Plautus on,^[3] whose Miles gloriosus has someone fear being overcome by cunning treachery.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it rare except in Livy and Tacitus.^[3] It means to win a complete victory over, overcome, usually outside war;^[2] intransitively Tacitus says simply that Bardanes won.^[5] With ut it means to prevail upon or persuade: Livy writes that someone had persuaded the Rhodians in many speeches to keep the Roman alliance.^[2] It also means to carry a point or achieve an aim: Catullus tells himself that his one salvation is to win through.^[2] Lucretius uses it of proving a contention in words.^[2] Stelten gives "conquer, overcome" for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being overcome by treachery.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of proving a point.^[2]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of winning through.^[2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of persuading the Rhodians.^[2]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of Bardanes' victory.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To win a complete victory over, overcome;^[2][5][1] (intransitive) to prevail.^[2][5][1]
2. To prevail upon, persuade.^[2][1]
3. To carry (a proposal), achieve (an aim); to prove (a contention).^[2][1]

Word family

• pervicāx
• pervicus

Related words

• vincō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson