accurate

Forms

accūrātē (comparative accūrātius, superlative accūrātissimē)^[1] It is also spelled adc-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin accūrātus (“done with care”) + -ē.^[2][1] accūrātus is the participle of accūrō “to take care of”, from ad- and cūrō (“to care for”), the verb of cūra “care”.^[3][4] De Vaan traces cūra to Proto-Italic *kwois-ā- (“care, watch”), perhaps from a root Proto-Indo-European *kwei-s- (“to heed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is with attention to detail, meticulously, carefully, and also precisely and exactly.^[2][1] The TLL sorts its uses by the synonyms they match: carefully and studiously, then elaborately and exquisitely, then simply diligently.^[6] Lewis & Short note that the verb accūrō is very common in Plautus and Terence, while the participle adjective is frequent in Cicero and is never used of persons, for whom dīligēns serves.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the adverb.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Carefully, with attention to detail, meticulously.^[2][1][6]
2. Precisely, exactly.^[1]

Related words

• accūrātus
• accūrō
• cūra
• English accurate

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften