vergo

Forms

vergō (present infinitive vergere, perfect active versī); third conjugation, no supine stem^[1] The perfect was disputed by the grammarians: Charisius and Diomedes give verxī, Probus versī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *werg-e/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂uerg- (“to turn”).^[4][1] It is cognate with Hittite hurki- (“wheel”), Sanskrit वृणक्ति (vṛṇákti, “turns, wards off”) and Old English wrencan (“to turn, twist”).^[4] The OLD also compares Lithuanian veržiù.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro;^[4] the OLD's examples begin with Lucretius, who has the sun's heat directed down to the earth,^[2] and Cicero, who has all parts of the world tending towards its centre.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to move downward, sink, and to slope down: Cicero describes a roof sloping neatly onto a lower portico.^[2] Of places it is to face or lie towards: Caesar says one side of Britain faces Spain and the west.^[2] Of time it is to draw towards an end, as Livy's hour of the day already verging on noon, and of affairs to tend towards some state: Cicero asks Atticus to look where things are heading.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of a colour shading into white, and Seneca of people inclined to a vice.^[2]

Church Latin has it for be inclined, bend, turn.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the sun's heat directed downward.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sloping and of tending.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of a coast facing west.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy of the hour verging on noon.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sink or move downward;^[2][1] (transitive) to turn or tilt down.^[2][1]
2. To slope down, incline.^[2][1][5]
3. Of places, to face, lie towards.^[2][1]
4. Of time, to draw towards an end.^[2]
5. Of affairs, to tend; of colour, to shade into.^[2]
6. Of people, to be inclined towards; to sink into a condition.^[2]

Word family

• convergō
• dēvergō
• dīvergō
• ēvergō
• invergō
• revergō

Related words

• vermina

Usage notes

The neuter plural vermina “griping pains” may continue a noun ⟨*werg-mn⟩ “contraction” of the belly, which the Romans associated with vermis “worm”.^[4]

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 n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de