-ce
Pronunciation
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
- (enclitic) A deictic particle strengthening demonstratives and adverbs, “here, this here”.[2][3][1][5]
- (Old Latin) Added to hic, iste and ille for emphasis.[1]
Word family
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson