Etymologically
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strangulo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈstraŋ.ɡʊ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈstraŋ.ɡu.lo][1]

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

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