rixor

Forms

rixor (present infinitive rixārī, perfect active rixātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rixa (“quarrel, brawl”) + -or.^[2][3][1] De Vaan thinks rixa may come from an s-present, reconstructing Proto-Indo-European *h₁riḱ-s- (“to break, fight”) with a query and comparing Ancient Greek ἐρείκω (ereíkō, “to break, tear”) and Middle Welsh rwygaw (“to tear apart”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's earliest example is Lucretius, of people brawling with much bloodshed,^[3] and Cicero in De oratore tells of someone who had quarrelled with a man over a mistress.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to quarrel violently or noisily, to brawl;^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.^[2][3] Horace uses it of quarrelling over goat's wool, that is, over trifles.^[3] Tacitus says that an orator of the bad kind does not fight but brawls.^[3] Figuratively the elder Seneca speaks of a man, stubborn by nature, struggling with his fortune.^[2] Of things it means to struggle against a force: Varro says that dried plants resist and break rather than being cut.^[2] It is also used of opposed qualities that clash: Seneca writes of the moment when desire and fear are not at war with each other.^[2] Stelten gives "to quarrel" for Church Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of bloody brawls.^[3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a quarrel over a mistress.^[2]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of dried plants that resist the sickle.^[2]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of quarrelling over goat's wool.^[3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of desire and fear at war.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To quarrel, brawl, wrangle;^[2][3][1][5] (figurative) to struggle (with circumstances).^[2][3][1][5]
2. (of things) To struggle against a force;^[2] (of qualities, sounds) to clash.^[2]

Related words

• rixa
• rixōsus

References

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