Etymologically
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subterfugio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [sʊp.tɛrˈfʊ.ɡi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [sub.terˈfuː.d͡ʒi.o][1]

Forms

subterfugiō (present infinitive subterfugere, perfect active subterfūgī); third (-iō variant) conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1] It is also spelled supterfugiō.[2] It has no supine.[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin subter (“beneath, secretly”) + fugiō (“to flee”).[2][1] De Vaan traces fugiō to Proto-Italic *fug-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bhug-i- (“to flee”).[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has both uses:[2] someone says that Chrysalus has slipped away from him today, and another is told that he can dodge a few things, if not all.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, to slip away secretly, is very rare.[4] Transitively it means to avoid a threatened evil by skill or a trick, to dodge or evade;[2] Lewis & Short call it a favourite word of Cicero, who has evading the force of charges, military service, punishment, danger, and all things as if they were fate.[4] Livy uses it of escaping the storm of the Punic war, and Suetonius of evading the claims of the treasury.[4] Church Latin has it as to evade, shun, escape or flee secretly.[5] The noun subterfugium was formed from it.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of slipping away and of dodging.[2][4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of evading charges and military service.[4][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of escaping a war.[4][6]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius, of evading the treasury.[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To slip away by stealth.[2][4][1]
  2. (transitive) To evade, dodge, shun, avoid.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • subterfugium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de