refrico

Forms

refricō (present infinitive refricāre, perfect active refricuī, supine refricātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + fricō (“to rub, chafe”).^[2][1] De Vaan lists fricō from Plautus on among the derivatives of friō (“to crumble”); he thinks the verb presupposes an adjective *fri-ko-, built on *frio-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰriH-o- (“cut”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Cato's De agri cultura, in instructions that end refricato denuo, “rub it again”.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a favourite word of Cicero, rare elsewhere.^[6] Cicero uses it of tearing open a wound again, in figurative phrases such as reopening a scar of the state that had already closed,^[2][7] of reviving someone's grief or longing by speech or letter,^[2][4] of renewing the memory of a deed,^[2][6] and intransitively of an eye inflammation that keeps flaring up, crebro refricat lippitudo.^[2][7] A Pompeian wall inscription uses it reflexively of sores becoming raw again.^[2] Ovid writes of love renewed by a reminder,^[2] Apuleius of renewed lamentations,^[2] and Fronto of going over the same thought again and again.^[2][7] The TLL records it in Caelius Aurelianus of a grief that brings back an illness.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of rubbing a mass again.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of reopening wounds and reviving grief.^[2][6][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of love revived.^[2][5]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it of repeating the same thought.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rub again; to work over again.^[2][7]
2. To make a wound sore again, tear it open;^[2][6] (reflexive or intransitive, of sores and inflammations) to become raw again, flare up.^[2][6]
3. (figurative) To revive grief, longing or a memory; to stir up the mind again.^[2][6]

Related words

• affricō
• circumfricō
• cōnfricō
• dēfricō
• fricō
• īnfricō
• perfricō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften