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pilo

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pilo1 fix firmly

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpiː.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpiː.lo][1]

Forms

pīlō (present infinitive pīlāre, supine pīlātum); first conjugation, no perfect stem[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “fix firmly” is from Latin pīla2 (“squared pillar, pier”), with the verbal suffix -ō.[2][3][4] De Vaan calls the origin of the noun unknown, but compares the Oscan verb ⟨ehpeílatasset⟩ “they erected (a stele)”, which he takes as a verb formed on the same noun with a prefix meaning “out”.[3] Lewis & Short and Georges instead equate it with Ancient Greek πιλέω (piléō).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records pīlāre from Ennius on.[3] The line the dictionaries quote is a fragment of the poet Hostius, preserved by Servius: hastam pīlāns prae pondere frangit, “driving the spear home, he breaks it by the weight”.[5][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb is rare: the dictionaries give it only the sense of fixing something firmly or driving it home,[2][4][7] and Georges renders it “to press together”.[6] The TLL lists Romance verbs such as Italian pillare and French piler under it.[8] Its participle pīlātus was used as an adjective meaning “close-pressed, dense”.[5]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – De Vaan dates the verb from Ennius.[3][9]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius quotes the line of Hostius in his commentary on Virgil.[5][8][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fix firmly, drive home (a spear).[2][4][7]
  2. To press together, compress.[6]

Word family

  • pīlātus

pilo2 pluck

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɪ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpiː.lo][1]

Forms

pilō (present infinitive pilāre, perfect active pilāvī, supine pilātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “pluck” is from Latin pilus1 (“hair”), with the verbal suffix -ō;[2][6][10] the OLD compares dēpilātus (“having one's hair plucked”).[2] The TLL takes it as a back-formation from dēpilō and expīlō, perhaps a late one, made when the old intransitive verb was no longer in use.[8] De Vaan gives no further etymology for pilus.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest use the dictionaries cite is figurative: Petronius has the proverbial malam parram pilāvit, “he plucked a bad parra”, which the TLL explains as meeting with bad luck.[8][5][7] In its literal sense, “to remove the hair from”, it appears in Martial.[2][5][8]

Semantic evolution

Martial uses it of plucking the hair from the body,[5][8] and the OLD notes a possible figurative sense “to dress down, savage”.[2] A text cited as Chiron uses it of a suckling puppy prepared for cooking.[8] Georges and Lewis & Short take the Late Latin sense “to plunder” in Ammianus Marcellinus as a transfer of this verb (see Usage notes).[6][5] The verb lives on in Italian pelare, French peler and Spanish pelar.[8]

Timeline

  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it in the proverbial malam parram pilāvit.[8][9]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of removing hair from the body.[5][8][9]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses pilāre for plundering camps and villas.[5][6][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To deprive of hair or feathers, pluck, depilate.[2][5][4]
  2. (figurative) Perhaps, to dress down, savage.[2]
  3. (Late Latin) To plunder, pillage.[5][6][7]

Word family

  • ālipilus
  • pilātrīx

Usage notes

The OLD has a third, intransitive pilō “to grow hairy”, also from pilus;[2] Lewis & Short quote it from Afranius and Novius, and Paulus' epitome of Festus explains pilat as “begins to have hairs”.[5][8]

The Late Latin “to plunder” in Ammianus Marcellinus is filed differently: Georges and Lewis & Short put it under the verb meaning “pluck”,[6][5] Gaffiot makes it a third pīlō,[4] and the TLL treats it as a separate verb, perhaps an archaism or a back-formation from compīlō, expīlō and suppīlō.[8]

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 i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier