refugus

Forms

refugus (feminine refuga, neuter refugum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin refugiō (“to flee back”) + -us,^[2][1] and that verb is a compound of re- and fugiō (“to flee”).^[2] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰug-i- (“to flee”) and is cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL date it from Ovid,^[4][5] who writes that Tantalus stopped snatching at the receding water (nec Tantalus undam captāvit refugam).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it mostly in poets,^[5] and Lewis and Short note that it is poetic and post-Augustan, absent from Virgil and Horace.^[7] Lucan uses it of the Parthians fleeing back, of the Ocean withdrawing at the ebb and of hair swept back from the forehead,^[2][5][7] Statius of the receding sea,^[5] and Ausonius of oysters left bare by the shallows.^[5] Tacitus has it of cavalry that fell back on purpose, and as a noun for fugitives.^[7][6] Ambrose uses it with a genitive, of someone who shuns fasting.^[7][6]

Medieval British writers used it of people who flee, also figuratively, and William of Malmesbury of receding hair.^[8]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the water that eludes Tantalus.^[2][4]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of the receding sea.^[5][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of retreating cavalry and, as a noun, of fugitives.^[7][4]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it of shallows left by the tide.^[5][4]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it with a genitive, of shunning a fast.^[7][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fleeing back, fleeing away.^[2][7][6]
2. Receding, drawing back (of water, the tide, hair).^[2][7][8]
3. (Late Latin, with a genitive) Shunning, avoiding.^[7][6]

Noun

1. A fugitive.^[7][6][1]

Related words

• refuga
• refugiō
• fugiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press