Etymologically
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summergo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [sʊmˈmɛr.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [sumˈmɛr.ɡo][1]

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

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