Etymologically
Log in

subigo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 23:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsʊ.bɪ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsuː.bi.ɡo][1]

Forms

subigō (present infinitive subigere, perfect active subēgī, supine subāctum); third conjugation[1] Cicero, in verse, scans the ⟨u⟩ long.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin sub- (“under, from below”) + agō (“to drive”).[3][1] De Vaan traces agō to Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”), cognate with Oscan acum (“to act”), Old Irish aigid (“drives”) and Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius has all brought under one judgment (subiguntur sub ūnum iūdicium).[3]

Semantic evolution

The prefix first gives “to drive from below, push up”, as Virgil's rower who barely forces his boat upstream, and “to drive under”: sheep under shady rocks (Varro), oxen under the yoke, people under an authority.[3] It is to break in animals and train people (Livy's men hardened by so many wars), and above all to subdue a country, as the elogium of a Roman general who subdued the Aequi and Volsci, and to crush a person's spirit.[3] Plautus often uses it of being driven or forced to do something.[3]

A farming sense is to work up into a soft mass: Cato has flour kneaded with water and soil worked with the spade.[3] From this it is to grind, to card wool (Ovid's Arachne), to rub or massage, to polish, and to whet axes on the whetstone (Virgil).[3] Church Latin glosses it “bring under, dig up, cultivate, tame, subjugate, train, force”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of bringing under one judgment.[3][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in the sense “to force”.[3][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of kneading and of working the soil.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of men hardened by war.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of whetting axes.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To push up; to drive or bring under.[3][1]
  2. To break in, tame; to train.[3][5]
  3. To subdue, subjugate, conquer.[3][1][5]
  4. To force, compel (to do something).[3][1]
  5. To knead; to work, cultivate (the soil).[3][1][5]
  6. To grind; to card (wool); to rub, massage; to polish; to whet.[3][1]

Word family

  • prōsubigō
  • subactārius
  • subāctiō
  • subāctor
  • subactus
  • subigitō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de