reago

Forms

reagō (present infinitive reagere, perfect active reēgī, supine reāctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back, again”) + agō (“to drive, do”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges and Gaffiot record it in Avienus' Aratea (line 668), in the sense “drive back again”,^[2][3] but the TLL rejects it as a word that found its way into the dictionaries by mistake: the manuscripts there have cogunt.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Wiktionary gives it in Late and Medieval Latin for “act on again, do again”, and in New Latin scientific writing for “react”.^[1] Barnhart traces French réagir and English react to a Late Latin reagere, past participle reāctus.^[5]

Timeline

• mid 4th century AD – Avienus' Aratea, line 668, in the reading the older dictionaries print.^[2][3][6][4]
• 1611 – English reacting is first recorded, partly under the influence of French réagir.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive back again (a doubtful reading in Avienus).^[2][3][4]
2. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) To act on again, do again.^[1]
3. (New Latin) To react.^[1]

Word family

• reāctiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de