Latin

Verb

conterō ‎(present infinitive conterere, perfect active contrīvī, supine contrītum); third conjugation

1. I grind or crush to pieces
2. I bruise or crumble
3. I wear down or away
   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, De brevitate vitae 15

     Horum te mori nemo coget, omnes docebunt; horum nemo annos tuos conteret, suos tibi contribuet; nullius ex his sermo periculosus erit, nullius amicitia capitalis, nullius sumptuosa obseruatio.

     No one of these will force you to die, but all will teach you how to die; no one of these will wear out your years, but each will add his own years to yours; conversations with no one of these will bring you peril, the friendship of none will endanger your life, the courting of none will tax your purse.

Inflection

Descendants

• Spanish: curtir
• Portuguese: curtir

References

• contero in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• contero in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “contero”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to waste time on something: tempus terere, conterere (in) aliqua re