quasso

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkʷas.soː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkʷas.so]^[1]

Forms

quassō (present infinitive quassāre, perfect active quassāvī, supine quassātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is the frequentative of quatiō “to shake” with the suffix -tō.^[2][1][3] Plautus has an old form ⟨cassō⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are from Plautus, of shaking repeatedly and of a shaking head.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to shake repeatedly, toss, and to shake the head in sorrow or anger, as in Ennius and Virgil's caput quassāre, and to brandish a weapon, as Virgil's hastam.^[2][5] It meant to make structures or the body tremble, as in Pliny, to batter, bruise, shatter with repeated blows, as in Lucretius, and to weaken or impair, also financially, as in Seneca.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to shake, shatter, break.^[6] Through Old French quasser, casser it gave English quash in the sense “to break, crush” in the early 14th century; the other sense “to annul” goes back to Late Latin cassāre, from cassus “empty, void”.^[7] It survives in French casser, Italian squassare, and Spanish quejar and Portuguese queixar.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of shaking.^[2][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of shaking the head.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of battering.^[2][4]
• early 14th century – English quash “to crush” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shake repeatedly; to shake the head; to brandish.^[2]
2. To make tremble.^[2]
3. To batter, shatter, bruise.^[2]
4. To weaken, impair.^[2]

Word family

• cassābundus
• conquassō
• inquassatus
• quassābilis
• quassātiō
• quassātūra

Related words

• quatiō
• concutiō
• English quash

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com