LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

pereo

pereo

To pass away

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 294 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

pĕr-ĕo — Lewis & Short

pĕr-ĕo, ĭi (īvi), ĭtum, īre (periet for peribit, Coripp. Johann. 7, 27;

I perf. perivit, App. M. 4, 21: perīt, Juv. 8, 85: perisset, Lact. 3, 20, 17 al.: perisse, Liv. 1, 49, 1; Ov. Am. 2, 19, 56; fut. periet, Vulg. Sap. 4, 19 al.), v. n.
I To pass away, come to nothing; to vanish, disappear, be lost: e patriā, Plaut. Capt. 3, 4, 5: ecqua inde perisset soror, Ter. Eun. 3, 3, 15: ne vena periret aquae, Ov. Tr. 3, 7, 16.—
B Esp., to pass through, leak, be absorbed (poet.): lymphae Dolium pereuntis, Hor. C. 3, 11, 27; cf.: postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris terrai praecipitavit, Lucr. 1, 250.—
II To pass away, to be destroyed, to perish (the predom. and class. signif. of the word; syn.: occĭdo, intereo, obeo).
A In gen.: aedes cum fundamento perierint, Plaut. Most. 1, 2, 69: tantam pecuniam tam brevi tempore perire potuisse, Cic. Phil. 5, 4, 11: totum exercitum periturum, Nep. Epam. 7, 4: fac pereat vitreo miles ab hoste tuus (in the game of chess), let your knight be taken by a pawn, Ov. A. A. 2, 208: causae cur urbes perirent, Hor. C. 1, 16, 19: peritura regna, Verg. G. 2, 498: puppis, Ov. F. 3, 600: Troja peritura, Verg. A. 2, 660: pereunt sole tepente nives, melt away, Ov. F. 3, 236: telum rubigine, Hor. S. 2, 1, 13: comae, Ov. Am. 1, 14, 30: fabae laeso flore, id. F. 5, 267.—Of the crocus: gaudet calcari et atteri, pereundoque melius provenit, Plin. 21, 6, 17, § 34.—
B In partic.
1 To perish, lose one's life, die (class.): non intellego, quamobrem, si vivere honeste non possunt, perire turpiter velint; aut cur minore dolore perituros se cum multis, quam si soli pereant, arbitrentur, Cic. Cat. 2, 10, 21: summo cruciatu supplicioque, id. N. D. 3, 33, 81: fame, id. Inv. 2, 57, 172: eodem leto esse pereundum, id. Div. 1, 26, 56: morbo, Hor. Ep. 1, 7, 86: naufragio, Cic. Deiot. 9, 25: hominum manibus, Verg. A. 3, 606: uterque juravit, periturum inter nos secretum, that it should perish with us, Petr. 21: ab Hannibale, at his hands, Plin. 11, 37, 73, § 189: perire turpiter, Cic. Cat. 2, 10, 21: fortiter, Hor. S. 2, 3, 42: generosius, id. C. 1, 37, 21: a morbo, Nep. Reg. 3, 3.—
2 To pine away with love, to be desperately in love; to love to desperation (poet.): indigno cum Gallus amore peribat, Verg. E. 10, 10; Cat. 45, 3: quo beatus Vulnere, quā pereat sagittā, Hor. C. 1, 27, 11: ipse Paris nudā fertur periisse Lacaenā, Prop. 2, 12, 13.—With acc. of the beloved object, Plaut. Poen. 5, 2, 135.—
3 To be lost, wasted, spent in vain: ne et oleum et opera perierit, Cic. Att. 2, 17, 1: tempora, Ov. R. Am. 107: labor, id. M. 1, 273: nullus perit otio dies, Plin. 11, 6, 5, § 14: ne nummi pereant, Hor. S. 1, 2, 133: minae, Ter. Ad. 4, 7, 25: aurum, Col. 11, 1, 29; cf. actiones, Liv. 39, 18.—
4 To be lost, ruined, undone: quid fieri tum potuit? jampridem perieramus, Cic. Att. 14, 10, 1: meo vitio pereo, id. ib. 11, 9, 1.—Hence, perii, etc., as an exclamation of despair, I am lost! I'm undone! hei mihi, disperii! vocis non habeo satis: vicini, interii, perii, Plaut. Most. 4, 3, 36: perii, interii, occidi! quo curram! quo non curram? id. Aul. 4, 9, 1: perii animo, am disheartened, id. Rud. 2, 6, 26; cf.: ingenio perii, Ov. Tr. 2, 2; Lucr. 4, 1136: periimus, actum est, we are lost, it is all over with us, Ter. Ad. 3, 2, 26: perierat et inventus est, Vulg. Luc. 24, 32; 15, 6.—So, peream, si, nisi, in asseverations, may I perish, may I die, if or if not, Ov. H. 17, 183; Cassiod. ap. Cic. Fam. 15, 19, 4; Ov. P. 3, 5, 47; id. H. 17, 183.—Gerund and gerundive: nisi illud perdo argentum, pereundum est mihi, Plaut. As. 1, 3, 91; Prop. 2, 1, 53: pereundi figurae, Ov. H. 10, 81: pereundi terminus, Sil. 3, 559: puppis pereunda est probe, must be lost, Plaut. Ep. 1, 1, 70.—
C Trop., of moral qualities, etc.: pudor periit, Plaut. Bacch. 3, 3, 81: fides, id. Truc. 1, 1, 24: virtus, Ov. F. 2, 227.

In the wild

6 of 2,577 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. pereo (scan p. 521; entry #8519).

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.