Etymologically
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rigo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈrɪ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈriː.ɡo][1]

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

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