rogito
Pronunciation
Forms
rogitō (present infinitive rogitāre, perfect active rogitāvī, supine rogitātum); first conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is the frequentative of rogō (“to ask”), formed with -itō.[2][1] De Vaan takes ⟨rogō⟩ as probably made from a noun Proto-Italic *rogo- (“request; stretching out”), Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵ-o- (“stretching”), perhaps of the arms held out in begging, cognate with Old Norse rakr (“straight”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[3] who has a character get hoarse from asking questions.[4]
Semantic evolution
It means “to ask again and again, eagerly”, of questions and of requests: Plautus has “who I am, you keep asking me”, and a man going to the market and asking for fish.[2] It is a favourite word of Plautus and Terence and otherwise very rare;[4][2] Propertius uses it of questioning sailors.[4][2]
Church Latin glosses it “ask eagerly, inquire frequently”.[5]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of repeated questions.[2][6]
- 190–159 BC – Terence.[4][6]
- 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of questioning sailors.[2][6]
Meanings
Verb
- To ask a person repeatedly or eagerly, keep asking.[2][4][1][5]
- To ask insistently for a thing; to inquire about a person.[2]
Word family
- ērogitō
- perrogitō
- rogitātiō
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de