Etymologically
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accenseo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [akˈkẽː.se.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [atˈt͡ʃɛn.se.o][1]

Forms

accēnseō (present infinitive accēnsēre, perfect active accēnsuī, supine accēnsum); second conjugation[1] Lactantius and Salvian spell it adcēnseō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + cēnseō (“to assess, count”), “to count in addition”.[3][2][1] Varro instead connected the noun ⟨accēnsus⟩ “attendant” with acciō (“to summon”), because such men were often summoned for necessary tasks,[2][4] while the epitome of Festus says the reserve troops were called ⟨accēnsī⟩ because they were added to the roll of the legions.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle as a noun appears first, in a fragment of Plautus' comedy Frivolaria: ubi sunt accēnsī?, “where are the supernumeraries?”.[2] The finite verb is very rare;[4][3][2] Ovid has a minor divinity say numine sub dominae lateo atque accenseor illi, “I hide under my mistress's power and am counted as her attendant”.[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Livy uses the participle of the horn and trumpet players added to the centuries.[2] The noun accēnsus1 became the usual word for the attendant of a magistrate and for the supernumerary troops of the army.[4][2]

In Late Latin the verb came back in the general sense “to reckon among, assign to”: Lactantius writes that the east is assigned to God,[2] and Symmachus and Salvian use it of things counted among others.[2] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “to add, reckon in addition, number”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the participle accēnsī as a noun.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses the participle of musicians added to the centuries.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the finite verb in the passive.[4][3][6]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it in the sense “to assign to”.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To attach (to someone) as an attendant; to count among (someone's) companions.[3][4][2]
  2. (Late Latin) To reckon among, assign to, add to.[2][5][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de