repurgo

Forms

repūrgō (present infinitive repūrgāre, perfect active repūrgāvī, supine repūrgātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + pūrgō (“to clean”).^[2][1] De Vaan explains pūrgō as a contraction of pūrigō, built on pūrus (“clean”) and agō (“to drive, do”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short find it no earlier than the Augustan age;^[4] Livy uses it of clearing a road by sending men ahead.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides clearing roads and ground,^[2] it was used of cleaning a wound (Celsus) and of making the eyesight clearer (Seneca).^[2] Suetonius has it of clearing the bed of the Tiber and, figuratively, of “cleaning up” the slave prisons throughout Italy.^[2][5] Florus writes of getting gold by refining it from the veins of ore, and Pliny the Younger of speeches “pruned” and cut down into a single book.^[2] Ampelius uses it of purging freedmen from the tribes.^[2] Wiktionary gives the sense “to cleanse again”.^[1]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of clearing a road.^[2][4][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of cleansing an ulcer.^[2][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of clearing the Tiber and the slave prisons.^[2][5][6]
• c. 120 AD – Florus uses it of refining gold.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cleanse, make clean; to clear (the sight); (figurative) to clean up.^[2][4]
2. To obtain by cleansing or refining.^[2][5]
3. To clear of obstructions (a road, ground, a river bed); (figurative) to prune.^[2][5]
4. To purge (persons from a list).^[2]

Word family

• repurgium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de