transcurro

Forms

trānscurrō (present infinitive trānscurrere, perfect active trānscurrī or trānscucurrī, supine trānscursum); third conjugation^[1] The perfect is trānscurrī in Cicero, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Livy and Quintilian, and trānscucurrī in Pliny the Elder, Suetonius and Curtius.^[2] An edict has trānscocurrerint.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin trāns- + currō (“to run”).^[1][3] De Vaan traces currō to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”), comparing Old Irish carr (“vehicle”); he notes that compounds in ⟨-currō⟩ are more often figurative than those in ⟨-cursō⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus tells someone to run across to them quickly.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to run or hurry across from one place to another, and figuratively to change quickly from one mode to another, as metaphors in the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[1] It is also to move rapidly through or past: Caesar has the Massilians trying to sweep off the oars of ships by running past them, and Lucretius images that cross immense space in a moment.^[1] Pliny the Elder has a white line running across a leaf, and Silius an arrow passing through both temples.^[1] It is to pass by unnoticed or treat cursorily: the elder Seneca has one declaimer pressing a point another had skimmed over.^[1] Of time it is to run its course: Seneca writes that while we put things off, life runs past.^[1] Cicero has men who had run their full course, like Cyrus and Alexander.^[1] Church Latin glosses it to pass through.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of running across.^[1][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of images crossing space.^[1][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of ships running past oars.^[1][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of life running past.^[1][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run or hurry across; to change quickly from one thing to another.^[1][2][6]
2. To run through or past; of a line, to run across.^[1][2]
3. Of a weapon, to pass right through.^[1]
4. To pass by unnoticed; to treat cursorily, skim.^[1][2]
5. Of time, to run its course; to run through a career.^[1][2]

Word family

• transcursio
• transcursorius
• trānscursus

Related words

• currō

References

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