piscor

Forms

piscor (present infinitive piscārī, perfect active piscātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin piscis (“fish”), a denominative verb.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces piscis to Proto-Italic *piski- (“fish”) and Proto-Indo-European *pisk- (“fish”), noting that the vowel of the Celtic form is hard to explain.^[4] Cognate with Old Irish íasc (“fish”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks, “fish”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan has it from Plautus on,^[4] who has it four times in verse;^[3] in the Rudens someone has gone off to the sea to fish.^[3]

Semantic evolution

After Plautus it is rare in verse, and in prose it is found from Cicero and Sallust on.^[3] Cicero tells of fishermen fishing before a man's gardens, Horace couples fishing and hunting, and Suetonius says Augustus fished with a hook to relax, while Nero fished with a golden net.^[5][3] Pliny the Elder writes of dolphins fishing together with men.^[3] Plautus has the proverb piscārī in āere, “to fish in the air”, for wasted effort,^[5][6] and Suetonius reports Augustus comparing those who seek small gains at great risk to men fishing with a golden hook.^[5][7]

The Vulgate has vādō piscārī, “I am going fishing”, in the Gospel of John.^[5] The TLL lists its Romance descendants, among them Italian pescare, French pêcher, Spanish pescar and Portuguese pescar.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it four times, including the proverb of fishing in the air.^[3][5][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of fishermen before a garden.^[5][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace pairs fishing with hunting.^[5][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of Augustus and of Nero fishing.^[5][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has vādō piscārī.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fish.^[2][5]
2. piscārī in āere, to fish in the air: to labour in vain.^[5][6]

Word family

• expiscor
• piscātiō
• piscātor
• piscātrīx
• piscatura

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de