Etymologically
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acceptus

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Forms

acceptus (feminine accepta, neuter acceptum, comparative acceptior, superlative acceptissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect participle of accipiō (“to receive”), used as an adjective.[1][2][3] The verb is from ad- and capiō (“to take, seize”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *kap-i- (“to seize”).[4] Cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍆𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hafjan, “to lift”) and Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus,[3] who says of a man that nobody was more welcome: slaves and free men loved him.[1]

Semantic evolution

It means welcome, well liked or popular, of persons, and acceptable or pleasing, of things.[1][2] Of money it is received or credited, as in Plautus, and acceptum referre is to set something down to a person's credit, as in Varro.[1] Döderlein distinguishes it from grātus: gratus refers to the feeling of pleasure, acceptus to its expression, a welcome.[5]

Church writers often say acceptus deo “acceptable to God”, and Ammianus explains martyrs as those accepted by the godhead.[6] Church Latin glosses it “acceptable, worthy, welcome”, and the neuter noun as “receipt”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a well-liked man and of money received.[1][3]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of setting something to a person's credit.[1][3]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus of martyrs accepted by God.[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of persons, Welcome, well liked, popular.[1][2][8]
  2. Of things, acceptable, pleasing.[1][2][8]
  3. Of money, received, credited;[1] acceptum referre, to put down to someone's credit.[1][2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Acceptable to God.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org