rigo

Forms

rigō (present infinitive rigāre, perfect active rigāvī, supine rigātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] De Vaan notes that the compound irrigō (“to irrigate”) is clearly older than ⟨rigō⟩, and reconstructs Proto-Italic *rigā- (“to lead toward”).^[2] He considers the root of regō (“to lead”), “to lead water onto the fields”, but prefers the root Proto-Indo-European *Hriǵ- (“to stretch”) of rigeō (“to be stiff”), which best explains the ⟨i⟩.^[2][1] The OLD compares Old High German regan (“rain”) and English rain.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[2] who notes how far a small spring of water waters the meadows.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means “to water, irrigate” land and plants, and figuratively to nourish with a vital fluid, as Cicero's poem on the she-wolf feeding the sons of Mars with her udders.^[3] More widely it is to wet or drench, as Pliny the Elder's broom soaked in seawater, and Lucretius uses it of bathing with light.^[3][4] It also means to make a liquid flow, as Cicero's Aquarius pouring a dark stream.^[3] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[4]

Church Latin glosses it “water, wash, sprinkle, moisten, wet, irrigate”.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a spring watering meadows.^[3][2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the she-wolf and of Aquarius.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of soaking broom.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To water, irrigate; to nourish.^[3][4][1][5]
2. To wet, drench, moisten; to bathe.^[3][4][1][5]
3. To make a liquid flow.^[3][1]

Word family

• irrigō
• rigātiō
• rigatus
• riguus
• rigātor

Related words

• regō
• rigeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de