accio

Forms

acciō (present infinitive accīre, perfect active accīvī or acciī, supine accītum); fourth conjugation^[1] Plautus has a future acciēbō and Lucretius an imperfect accībant.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from ad- (“to”) and cieō (“to set in motion, summon”).^[2] De Vaan reconstructs for ⟨cieō⟩ an aorist Proto-Indo-European *(ḱ)ei(h₂)- (“to start to move”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἔκιε (ékie, “started to move”), and notes that the long ⟨ī⟩ of ⟨accīre⟩ appears in its perfect.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has the future acciēbō in the Miles gloriosus;^[2] Accius has “for which uproar I have called you here”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to summon, send for or invite, as in Accius and Lucretius' men calling on Orcus with dreadful cries, and to have a thing fetched, as Tacitus' king who sent his most trusted friends to Pontus to fetch the god's statue.^[2][4][1] It is used with the purpose of the summons, as in Varro.^[2] Mortem accīre, “to summon death”, is to kill oneself, as Velleius' king who brought on his own death.^[2][1]

Lewis and Short call it rare but classical.^[4] Church Latin glosses it “summon, call to, procure, take”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has acciēbō.^[2][6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of summoning to an uproar.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of calling on Orcus.^[4][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of fetching a statue.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To summon, send for, invite; to have (a thing) fetched.^[2][4][1][5]
2. To summon (for a purpose).^[2]
3. mortem accīre, to commit suicide.^[2][1]

Word family

• accitio
• accītus

Related words

• cieō
• concieō
• conciō
• excieō
• exciō
• percieō
• perciō
• ciō
• citō
• arcessō
• ēvocō

Usage notes

Döderlein gives arcessere and accersere as the general words for sending for someone;^[7] accīre implies that those sent for are equals, as in an invitation, and ēvocāre that they are subordinates, as in a summons.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e 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
7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper