Etymologically
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refertus

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Forms

refertus (feminine referta, neuter refertum, comparative refertior, superlative refertissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is the participle of referciō (“to stuff, cram”), used as an adjective.[1][2][3] The verb is formed from re- and farciō (“to stuff”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *fark-je- (“to stuff”); its only possible cognate, Ancient Greek φράσσω (phrássō, “to fence in”), fits poorly in meaning, and he leaves open that the word is not Indo-European.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[3] who has a house crowded with very learned men.[1]

Semantic evolution

Of places and containers it is crammed or full to bursting, usually with some exaggeration; of places it is also crowded with people, with an ablative or a genitive, as Cicero's Italy full of Pythagoreans and Gaul full of traders.[1][2] Of speeches and books it is crammed with words, ideas or quotations, as in Cicero, Quintilian and Tacitus.[1] Of persons it is loaded with gifts or qualities or charged with feelings, as Cicero's Xerxes, loaded with every reward and gift of fortune.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “crowded”.[5]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a crowded house and of speeches crammed with words.[1][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of roads packed with country people.[1][3]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of poems full of insults.[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of places or containers, crammed, full to bursting.[1]
  2. Crowded, packed with people.[1][5]
  3. Of speeches and writings, crammed with.[1]
  4. Of persons, loaded with gifts or qualities; charged with feelings.[1]

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson