Etymologically
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pondero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɔn.dɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔn.de.ro][1]

Forms

ponderō (present infinitive ponderāre, perfect active ponderāvī, supine ponderātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pondus (“weight”) + -ō.[2][1][3] That noun comes from pendō (“to hang; to weigh”),[1][4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *pend-e/o- (“to hang, weigh”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Plautus' Amphitruo a speaker groans that the other is weighing his fists.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to weigh, as Pliny the Elder a grain or Propertius' mistress her lovers' purses, and to weigh out money, as in Fronto.[2][6] Figuratively it is to weigh in the mind, appraise, consider: Cicero says the choice of words must be weighed by the judgement of the ear.[2] The TLL finds it in verse in Plautus, Propertius and Phaedrus, and in prose from Cicero on.[3] Church Latin glosses it weigh, consider, ponder.[7] English ponder (mid-14th century) first meant to estimate the worth of, from Old French and Latin.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of weighing fists.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of weighing words.[2][3]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius.[6]
  • mid-14th century – English ponder.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To weigh; to weigh out.[2][6][1]
  2. To weigh in the mind, ponder, consider, appraise.[2][6][1][7]

Word family

  • depondero
  • ponderabilis
  • ponderātiō
  • ponderator
  • praeponderō
  • repondero
  • ponderārium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson