spargo

spargo

1. first-person singular present indicative of spargere

• graspo, sporga

Disputed. Often derived from the zero-grade of Proto-Indo-European *sperh₂g- and connected with Ancient Greek σφαραγέομαι (spharagéomai, “to hiss, crackle”), Sanskrit स्फूर्जति (sphūrjati, “to roar, thunder”), Old Norse spraka (“to crackle”), and Lithuanian spὶrgti (“to hiss”), from which Proto-Indo-European *spregʰ- has been reconstructed. However, De Vaan doubts this etymology, arguing that the semantics are unconvincing and that, phonologically, *CrHC should yield *CrāC in Latin. Instead, Schrijver and De Vaan suggests that the term may derive from a g-extension to the root *sper- (“to scatter, strew”), whence also perhaps Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈspar.ɡoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈspar.ɡo]

spargō (present infinitive spargere, perfect active sparsī, supine sparsum); third conjugation

1. to scatter, strew, sprinkle, sparkle

   Synonym: cōnspergō

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.512:

     Sparserat et laticēs simulātōs fontis Avernī, [...].

     [The priestess] also had sprinkled the supposed waters of Avernus’ spring, [...].

   • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horace, Odes IV.11:

     [...] ara castis vincta verbenis avet immolato spargier agno; [...]

     [...] the altar decorated with fresh foliage yearns to be sprinkled with [blood from] a sacrificed lamb; [...]

2. to throw here and there, cast, hurl, throw about

   Synonyms: coniciō, iniciō, adiciō, obiciō, abiciō, permittō, iaciō, trāiciō, iaculor, ēmittō, mittō, lībrō

¹The present passive infinitive in -ier is a rare poetic form which is attested.

• “spargo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “spargo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "spargo", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “spargo”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to spread a rumour: rumorem spargere
    
  • to sow: serere; semen spargere
    
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 578
• Rix, Helmut, editor (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben [Lexicon of Indo-European Verbs] (in German), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, →ISBN, page 586