serpo

From Russian серп (serp).

• IPA^(key):
• Rhymes: -erpo
• Hyphenation: ser‧po

serpo (accusative singular serpon, plural serpoj, accusative plural serpojn)

1. sickle
2. crescent

Clipping of serpentiini +‎ -o

• IPA^(key): /ˈserpo/,
• Rhymes: -erpo
• Hyphenation^(key): ser‧po

serpo

1. (slang, motor racing) hairpin, very tight turn (in rally)

serpo (plural serpi)

1. billhook

From Proto-Italic *serpō, from Proto-Indo-European *sérpeti (“to creep, crawl”).^[1] Cognate with Sanskrit सर्पति (sarpati, “to glide, crawl”), Ancient Greek ἕρπω (hérpō), and Latin rēpō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈser.poː/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈser.po/,

serpō (present infinitive serpere, perfect active serpsī, supine serptum); third conjugation, no passive

1. to creep, crawl, move slowly (of an animal)
2. (figuratively) to move slowly or imperceptibly, to creep in or along, proceed gradually, to spread (of a thing or situation)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.268–269:

     “Tempus erat quō prīma quiēs mortālibus aegrīs
     incipit et dōnō dīvum grātissima serpit.”

     “It was the time when the first rest for careworn mortals begins, and as a gift of the gods it creeps in most pleasantly.”
     (The irony of “incipit” and “serpit”: As the weary Trojans rest, Greek soldiers “creep” from the wooden horse; the nighttime attack “begins”.)

3. (of fire) to spread
   • c. 48 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili 3.101:

     Cumque ignis magnitudine venti latius serperet,

     As the fire spread more and more, given favourable wind,

¹At least one use of the Old Latin "sigmatic future" and "sigmatic aorist" tenses is attested, which are used by Old Latin writers; most notably Plautus and Terence. The sigmatic future is generally ascribed a future or future perfect meaning, while the sigmatic aorist expresses a possible desire ("might want to").

• → Italian: serpere

• “serpo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “serpo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• serpo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a report is spreading imperceptibly: fama serpit (per urbem)