urgeo

Meaning

1. (conjugation-2, no-supine) to press, push, force, drive, urge (forward); to stimulate
2. (conjugation-2, no-supine) to weigh down, burden, oppress
3. (conjugation-2, no-supine) to crowd, hem in, confine

Concepts

beset

crowd

rush

urge

drive

Opposite of

domō, lēniō, sōpiō, sēdō, dēlēniō, restinguō, plācō, coërceō, mītigō, commītigō, ēlevō, levō, allevō, alleviō

Translations

pousser

spingere

βασανίζω

accabler

presser

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈʊr.ɡe.oː]

Etymology

Disputed.
* According to De Vaan, perhaps from Proto-Italic *worɣeō, from Proto-Indo-European *w(o)rǵʰ-éye-ti, from *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”) (compare German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian отверга́ть (otvergátʹ, “to reject”), Polish otwierać (“to open”), English worry, wring.
* The linguist Lucien van Beek argues that the proposed Germanic and Balto-Slavic cognates all can refer to the tying of ropes, a semantic sense that is absent from the Latin term. Thus, van Beek doubts a connection with *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Instead, van Beek compares the term to Ancient Greek εἴργω (eírgō) and suggests that the term may derive from the zero-grade of the root *h₁wreǵ-.
* According to Rix et al. (DIV), from a zero-grade present *uṛg-éye-ti, itself from the root Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“track, hunt, follow”) and cognate with English wreck, wreak. However, De Vaan argues that such a development requires a "far-fetched" semantic shift. The linguist Nicholas Zair suggests that a causative formed the same root, with the meaning of "to cause to follow a trail," may have more reasonably evolved to mean "to drive, push." Regardless, Zair doubts this etymology, as causatives or iteratives in Proto-Indo-European typically required the o-grade, instead of the zero-grade predicted by Rix. Zair, however, concedes that an o-grade causative *wrog-éye-ti may have produced urgeō via metathesis, a development perhaps also seen in sorbeō, itself from Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti.