Etymologically
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accelero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [akˈkɛ.ɫɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [atˈt͡ʃɛː.le.ro][1]

Forms

accelerō (present infinitive accelerāre, perfect active accelerāvī, supine accelerātum); first conjugation[1] Also spelt adcelerō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + celerō (“to hasten”),[2][4] from celer (“swift”),[5][6] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *kel-i- (“speeding”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Accius,[5] in a tragedy, of quickening one's pace (gressum adcelerasse).[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Transitively it meant quickening one's step, making something travel faster and speeding up an action, as reading in Quintilian;[2][3] it was also used for hastening an event, such as death in Lucretius, a march in Caesar or someone's consulship in Tacitus.[2][3] Intransitively it meant to hurry, in Cicero and Silius Italicus,[2][4] and Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “make haste”.[7] English accelerate was formed from its past participle.[6]

Timeline

  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of quickening one's pace.[2][3][8]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of things that hasten death.[2][3][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it intransitively, “to hurry”.[2][8]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of speeding up a march.[3][8]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of speeding up reading.[2][8]
  • AD 98–115 – Tacitus uses it of bringing forward a consulship.[3][8]
  • 1520s – English accelerate is formed from its past participle.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To quicken (one's pace).[2][3]
  2. To make (something) travel faster; to speed up (an action).[2]
  3. To hasten the occurrence or end of; to accelerate.[2][3]
  4. (intransitive) To hurry, make haste.[2][4][7]

Word family

  • praecelerō
  • English accelerate

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de