strangulo

Forms

strangulō (present infinitive strangulāre, perfect active strangulāvī, supine strangulātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek στραγγαλάω (strangaláō, “to choke, strangle”),^[2][3][4] a verb formed from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”).^[4][1] Varro already listed it among the Latin words thought to come from Greek, deriving it from the Greek verb.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation in the OLD is in a letter of Caelius to Cicero, of someone who took money from the opposing faction, seized Domitius et strangulāvit, “and strangled him”.^[2][3] Cicero himself uses the phrase Ille patrem strangulāvit, “he strangled his father”, as an example of words that need no apology.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to throttle or strangle a person or animal, with a noose or the hands;^[2][3] Tacitus has it of a woman strangled with a noose, and Pliny the Younger of a man strangled in prison.^[3] It widened to suffocating and choking in general: Celsus says obese people are choked by difficult breathing, and Pliny the Elder has frogs drowned in oil.^[3] Farmers and naturalists use it of plants: ivy sucks trees dry and strangles them, and a tie must not strangle a vine's trunk.^[3][2] It was also applied to constricting passages and stifling the voice (Quintilian),^[2][3] to a toga drawn too tight,^[3] and figuratively to torment: Ovid has a pent-up grief that strangles him, and Seneca pleasures that embrace us in order to strangle us.^[3][6] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “strangle”.^[7] English strangle came from it in about 1300 through Old French estrangler.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro derives it from Greek.^[5][8]
• 81–43 BC – In a letter of Caelius to Cicero, and in Cicero's own letters.^[2][3][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a tie strangling a vine.^[2][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a choked voice.^[2][8]
• c. 1300 – English borrows strangle through Old French.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strangle, throttle.^[2][3]
2. Of plants, to choke their growth.^[2][3]
3. To suffocate, stifle, smother; in the passive, to choke.^[2][3]
4. To constrict a passage or opening; to stifle a sound or the voice.^[2][3]
5. To keep a tight hold of, shut up close.^[2][3]
6. Figuratively, to torment or torture.^[3][1]

Word family

• astrangulō
• destrangulo
• praestrangulō
• strangulabilis
• strangulātiō
• strangulator
• strangulatrix
• strangulātus

Related words

• suffōcō
• English strangle

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 l m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there)., p. 6.115
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de