transfigo

Forms

trānsfīgō (present infinitive trānsfīgere, perfect active trānsfīxī, supine trānsfīxum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin trāns- (“across, through”) + fīgō (“to fix, pierce”).^[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs the root of fīgō as Proto-Indo-European *dʰeigʷ-e/o- or ⟨*dʰiHgʷ-e/o-⟩, and compares Lithuanian díegti (“to plant, sting”); the old form ⟨fīvere⟩ keeps the regular outcome of the labiovelar.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[3] in the Persa: sagitta Cupido cor meum transfixit, “Cupid has pierced my heart with an arrow”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to pierce through with a weapon: Caesar has men pierced by javelins and shields pinned together by a single throw,^[4] and Cicero a spear by which a man had been pierced.^[4] Livy uses it often of bodies and shields, and Plautus already has it with a Greek-style accusative of the part pierced.^[4] Less often, and only in poetry, it is to drive the weapon itself through something, as Virgil's spear that doubles a man up with pain.^[2][4] Church Latin keeps “pierce through, transfix”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of Cupid's arrow piercing the heart.^[2][4][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of men and shields pierced by javelins.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a man pierced by a spear.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a spear driven through.^[2][4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pierce through, transfix, run through.^[2][4][1][5]
2. (poetic) To drive or thrust a weapon through something.^[2][4]

Related words

• fīgō
• cōnfīgō
• affīgō
• trāiciō
• English transfix

References

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