trudo

Forms

trūdō (present infinitive trūdere, perfect active trūsī, supine trūsum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *treude/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, thrust”).^[2][1] Cognate with Welsh cythrudd (“to vex”), Lithuanian triū̃sas (“work, effort, pains”) and Old Norse þrjóta (“to lack”).^[2][3] De Vaan compares above all a Germanic verb meaning to maltreat, which points to a thematic verb with e-grade.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] whose Captivi complains that it is violence to be dragged and pushed at once.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to thrust, push or shove, and of a plant to push out shoots, as Virgil's root that is pushed out of dry wood.^[3][4] It is also to drive in a given direction, as Horace's hunter driving boars into the nets.^[3] Figuratively it is to force someone into an action or situation: Cicero warns of the lower step of death or slavery into which the gods advise “we should not be thrust”.^[3] In Terence one trick drives on another.^[3] Church Latin glosses it push, thrust, press, shove.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being pushed about.^[3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of one trick driving on another.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of being forced into a situation.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a root pushing out shoots.^[3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of boars driven into nets.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thrust, push, shove; of a plant, to push out shoots.^[3][4][1]
2. To drive in a given direction.^[3][4]
3. To force or drive into an action or situation.^[3][4]
4. Of what follows in a sequence, to drive on.^[3]

Word family

• abstrūdō
• contrūdō
• dētrūdō
• extrūdō
• introtrudo
• obtrūdō
• prōtrūdō
• retrūdō
• trudis
• trūsō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de