Etymologically
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repurgo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈpuːr.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈpur.ɡo][1]

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