summergo

Forms

summergō (present infinitive summergere, perfect active summersī, supine summersum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled submergō, the form under which the OLD lists it.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- + mergō (“to dip, plunge”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces mergō to Proto-Italic *mezge/o- and Proto-Indo-European *mesg-e/o- (“to sink, wash”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit मज्जन्ति (májjanti, “they sink”) and Lithuanian mazgóti (“to wash”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius.^[4] Cicero has a horse swallowed up by a whirlpool, summersus equus voraginibus.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to cause to sink, to plunge under water, and is most often passive.^[2][3] Caesar and Tacitus use it of sunken ships, Columella of pickles kept under brine, and Ovid of iron sunk in water.^[3] Virgil speaks of sinking men in the sea, and Livy has people almost sunk by storms.^[3] Justin says that all lands were once under the deep.^[3] The figurative use is late and rare: Claudian has virtue sunk in darkness, and Arnobius uses it for suppressing a text.^[3] Church Latin has it as to sink, dip, plunge, drown.^[5] English submerse (early 15th century) came from its participle, and submerge (about 1600) from French or directly from Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius.^[4][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a horse swallowed up by a whirlpool.^[3][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of a sunken ship.^[3][7]
• early 15th century – English submerse, from its participle.^[6]
• c. 1600 – English submerge.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause to sink, submerge, plunge under water.^[2][3][1]
2. To overwhelm;^[1] (Late Latin) to bury, suppress.^[3]

Word family

• summersiō
• summersus

Related words

• mergō
• immergō
• ēmergō
• English submerge

References

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