vapulo

Forms

vāpulō (present infinitive vāpulāre, perfect active vāpulāvī, supine vāpulātum); first conjugation, impersonal in the passive^[1]

Etymology

It probably meant first “to cry out in pain”, and is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂p- (“to cry, wail”), probably an onomatopoeic root, with the ending of ēiulō (“to wail”).^[2][1] The OLD makes it cognate with the Gothic verb for weeping and with English weep.^[2] Lewis & Short instead suggested a root meaning to wriggle or flutter.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] who uses it of being beaten and as a curse, as in the Asinaria, where an exchange of insults ends with “get thrashed!”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is active in form but passive in meaning: to be beaten or thrashed, as Terence's character who says that he by being beaten and the other by beating are both worn out.^[2][3] In imprecations the imperative is a curse, and vāpulā Papīria was a proverbial taunt of uncertain meaning.^[2] Of things it means to be battered by natural forces, as Varro's olives that shrivel when they have been beaten from the tree.^[2] Figuratively it means to be afflicted, ruined or defeated, as in Plautus' “I am beaten under the rule of Venus”.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to be flogged, lashed, afflicted or beaten, and to cry out.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being beaten, as a curse, and of being afflicted by love.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of being worn out by a beating.^[3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of olives beaten from the tree.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be beaten, thrashed or flogged.^[2][3][5][1]
2. In curses, “be thrashed!”.^[2][1]
3. Of things, to be battered by natural forces.^[2][1]
4. To be afflicted, ruined; to be defeated.^[2][1]

Word family

• vāpulāris

Related words

• English weep

References

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