Etymologically
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respergo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛsˈpɛr.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [resˈpɛr.ɡo][1]

Forms

respergō (present infinitive respergere, perfect active respersī, supine respersum); third conjugation[1] It is also spelled respargō in a royal law, in Accius and in Paul the Deacon's Festus.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + spargō (“to scatter, sprinkle”).[2][1] De Vaan traces spargō to Proto-Italic *sparg- and Proto-Indo-European *sp(e)r-g- (“to strew”), comparing Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō, “to strew, sow”); he rejects the common link with words for crackling sounds.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Accius.[3][4] A law attributed to the kings forbids sprinkling the pyre with wine.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to sprinkle or spatter as the result of some act, above all with blood: Cicero has hands spattered with a father's blood, and Catullus a youth spattered with his brother's blood.[2][5] Statius uses it of stone flecked with veins, and Valerius Maximus figuratively of morals stained by vices.[2] Paul the Deacon's Festus explains ⟨respersum vīnum⟩ as wine sprinkled on a tomb.[2] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.[5] Church Latin glosses it to scatter, stain, sprinkle.[6]

Timeline

  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it.[3][2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of hands spattered with blood.[2][4]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a youth spattered with his brother's blood.[2][4]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of veined stone.[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To sprinkle, spatter, splash.[2][5][1][6]
  2. To fleck with spots; to stain with disgrace.[2]
  3. To sprinkle a liquid.[2]

Word family

  • respersiō
  • respersus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson