segrego

Forms

sēgregō (present infinitive sēgregāre, perfect active sēgregāvī, supine sēgregātum); first conjugation^[1] Lucretius splits it by tmesis, sēque gregārī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sē- (“apart”) + grex (“flock”) + -ō, “to set apart from the flock”.^[2][1][4] De Vaan explains it as built on a phrase ⟨*sē grege⟩ “beside the herd”, as ēgregius is on ⟨*ē grege⟩.^[5] He traces grex to Proto-Italic *gʷreg- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷreg- (“group, herd”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[5] in the Miles Gloriosus of a man who scorns some women and sets all the others apart except the one addressed.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its general sense is to separate or exclude: Terence has a plea not to cut oneself off from a woman, and Livy prisoners led out and divided.^[3] Lewis & Short note that the literal sense, setting apart from the flock, is very rare: Phaedrus has sheep separated from goats.^[3] Figuratively Cicero separates savagery from humanity and virtue from the highest good.^[3] Seneca uses it of setting aside a topic.^[2] The Vulgate has the shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats,^[3] and Church Latin keeps “separate, set aside”.^[6] English segregate was formed from its past participle in the 1540s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of setting people apart.^[2][5][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of cutting oneself off from someone.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of separating ideas.^[3][7]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus, of sheep separated from goats.^[3][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of the shepherd separating sheep from goats.^[3][7]
• 1540s – English segregate from its past participle.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To separate, set apart, exclude.^[2][3][1][6]
2. To separate into parts or groups.^[2]
3. To set apart from the flock.^[3]
4. (figurative) To remove, keep away from; to set aside a subject.^[3][2]

Word family

• sēgregātim
• segregatio
• segregus

Related words

• grex
• congregō
• ēgregius
• gregālis
• English segregate

References

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