profugio

Forms

profugiō (present infinitive profugere, perfect active profūgī); third (-iō variant) conjugation, no supine stem, impersonal in the passive^[1] The first syllable is normally short; a Vetus Latina manuscript has the perfect profugiit.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prō- (“forward, away”) + fugiō (“to flee”).^[3][2][1] The TLL compares Ancient Greek προφυγεῖν (prophugeîn, “to flee away”) in Homer.^[2] De Vaan traces fugiō to Proto-Italic *fugi- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰug-i- (“to flee”), cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Captivi: a slave stole the boy and, running away (hinc profugiēns), sold him.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to run away or escape, and with ad to flee to someone for help (Cicero: a son wanted to take refuge with Brutus).^[3] It is also to leave one's home or country for good, as in Terence's son who ran away because of poverty, and profugere in exilium.^[3] From Accius on it is used transitively, to flee from a person or place, as Horace's Phocaeans left their fields and homes under a curse.^[3][5] Church Latin glosses it “flee away”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a runaway slave.^[3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a son leaving home.^[3][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, transitive, of fleeing an enemy.^[3][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the Phocaeans abandoning their city.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run away, flee, escape.^[3][1][6]
2. (with ad) To flee for help (to someone).^[3]
3. To leave one's home or country; to go into exile.^[3]
4. (transitive) To flee from; to abandon (a place).^[3][5]

Word family

• profugus

Related words

• fugiō
• refugiō
• cōnfugiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de