pugio

Forms

pūgiō m (genitive pūgiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pungō (“to prick, stab”) + -iō, from the root seen in its perfect ⟨pupugī⟩, with an old lengthened vowel.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces the root to Proto-Italic *pung- (“to pierce, sting”) and Proto-Indo-European *pu-n(e)-g/k-, comparing Ancient Greek πύξ (púx, “with the fist”).^[5] Paul the Deacon's Festus explains that it is so called because it is used to fight by stabbing.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Lucilius, de Vaan from Cicero.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

It is a short stabbing weapon, a dagger: Cicero tells how Brutus, as soon as Caesar was killed, raised his bloody dagger high.^[4] Tacitus and Suetonius use it of stabbing and of the daggers drawn against Caesar.^[4] Emperors wore it as a sign of their power of life and death, and so did the praetorian prefect.^[4] The OLD notes the post ⟨ā pugiōne⟩ held by Cleander, a freedman of Commodus.^[2] Döderlein distinguishes it as an openly carried soldier's weapon from ⟨sīca⟩, the hidden weapon of the bandit.^[7] Church Latin glosses it sword, dagger.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it.^[6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Brutus' bloody dagger.^[4][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of the emperor's dagger.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dagger, poniard, short stabbing weapon.^[2][4][1][8]

Word family

• pūgiunculus

Related words

• pungō
• pugnus

References

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