-ce

Forms

-ce (particle)^[1] In Classical Latin usually reduced to -c (hic, illic, hinc, tunc); kept in hicce, haecce, hocce, huiusce, and changed to -ci- before -ne (hiccine, hoccine, siccine).^[2][3] Archaic ipsiusce and cuiusce also have it.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ke, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“this, here”).^[4][1] De Vaan notes that it might in theory end in ⟨i⟩, but cedō (“give here!”) points to ⟨e⟩; the closely related stem Proto-Indo-European *ḱi is found in cis (“on this side of”) and citrā, an ablaut ⟨e⟩ / ⟨i⟩ that is rare in Proto-Indo-European.^[4] In Italic it was mainly suffixed to demonstratives; the Sabellic demonstrative, as in Oscan ekak (“this”), was built from a stem Proto-Indo-European *e- with this particle and then inflected.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was added to demonstratives and adverbs to point to something near at hand, “this here”, and in Classical Latin it was mostly reduced to ⟨-c⟩, as in hic, hinc and tunc.^[2][3] In Old Latin it could still be added to hic, iste and ille for emphasis.^[1] It also stands in ecce, and before the verb in cedo and cette.^[2][4]

Meanings

Particle

1. (enclitic) A deictic particle strengthening demonstratives and adverbs, “here, this here”.^[2][3][1][5]
2. (Old Latin) Added to hic, iste and ille for emphasis.^[1]

Word family

• ecce
• hic
• illic¹
• istic¹
• hinc
• hūc
• sīc
• nunc
• tunc
• cedo²

Related words

• cis
• ille
• iste
• citrā
• cēterus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson