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pigeo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word pigeo

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɪ.ɡe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpiː.d͡ʒe.o][1]

Forms

pigeō (present infinitive pigēre, perfect active piguī, supine pigitum); second conjugation[1] The perfect is piguit or pigitum est.[2][3] Ennius has a form pigret.[4][5]

Etymology

It belongs to piger (“sluggish, reluctant”): the TLL suggests that a personal verb ⟨*pigeō⟩ “I am unwilling” first stood beside the adjective, as ⟨maceō⟩ beside ⟨macer⟩, and that the impersonal ⟨piget⟩ grew from it like ⟨pudet⟩.[6] De Vaan gives Proto-Italic *pig-ē- (“to fill with revulsion”) beside ⟨*pig-ro-⟩ “inactive”, and calls the root etymology unknown; the Germanic words for “crime, treason” sometimes compared cannot be linked directly.[5] Wiktionary reports a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *peyǵ-, about which de Vaan is sceptical.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “tell me your name, if it doesn't irk you” in the Menaechmi;[4] de Vaan also dates it from Plautus.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly impersonal, piget, “it irks, it displeases”, with the person in the accusative and the cause in the genitive, as Virgil's piget inceptī, “they regret what they began”, or with an infinitive, as Ennius' reluctance to bear the toil.[4][2][1] Propertius has a gerundive, “words to be regretted”, and Apuleius the participle, “irked”.[4] Wiktionary and Lewis and Short also give a personal use, to feel annoyance or reluctance at, to repent of.[1][2]

Church Latin glosses piget “it irks, troubles, disgusts, grieves”.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: “if it doesn't irk you”.[4][7]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has pigret.[4][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: piget inceptī.[4][7]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius has the participle.[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (impersonal) It irks, displeases, grieves;[4][2][1][3] mē piget, I regret, I am reluctant.[4][2][1][3]
  2. To feel annoyance or reluctance at; to repent of.[1][2]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes piget, what one can neither do nor bear at all, from taedet, what one can no longer do or bear, and paenitet, what one wishes one had never done or suffered.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
Cite this entry

“Pigeo.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/pigeo. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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