remigo

Forms

rēmigō (present infinitive rēmigāre, perfect active rēmigāvī, supine rēmigātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rēmex (“oarsman, rower”) + -ō,^[2][3] and Wiktionary analyses it as rēmus (“oar”) with the suffix ⟨-igō⟩.^[1] De Vaan lists rēmex among the derivatives of that noun, which goes back to Proto-Italic *rē(s)mo- and Proto-Indo-European *h1reh1-(s)mo- (“oar”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρετμόν (eretmón, “oar”), ἐρέσσω (eréssō, “to row”), Lithuanian ìrti (“to row”) and Old English rōwan (“to row”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on.^[3] In the Tusculan Disputations he uses it in an image: statimne nos vela facere an quasi e portu egredientis paululum remigare?, “shall we set sail at once, or row a little first, as if leaving harbour?”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to use oars, to row.^[2] Caesar writes of rowing without a break, non intermisso remigandi labore,^[5][3] and the author of the Alexandrian War uses it of a sea battle.^[3] Propertius has it of a fleet rowing with a hundred oars, called ālae, “wings”.^[3] Seneca writes of those who row against the current,^[5][6] and Tacitus of a sea sluggish and heavy for rowers.^[7] Claudian uses it with an accusative, remigare alnum, “to row a ship”.^[5][7] Optatus uses it figuratively of souls wavering, though the TLL finds the image obscure and the passage perhaps corrupt.^[3][6] It survives in Italian.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Tusculan Disputations and his letters.^[3][5][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar has non intermisso remigandi labore.^[5][3][8]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of a fleet.^[3][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of rowing against the current.^[5][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of rowers in a heavy sea.^[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To use oars, to row.^[2][5][9]
2. (poetic, with an accusative) To propel (a ship) with oars.^[5][6]
3. (figurative) To waver.^[6][3]

Word family

• adrēmigō
• ērēmigō
• rēmigātiō
• subrēmigō

Related words

• rēmus
• rēmex
• rēmigium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson