accursus

Forms

accursus m (genitive accursūs); fourth declension^[1][2] Manuscripts mostly spell it adcursus.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin accurrō (“to run up”) + -tus.^[1][2] accurrō is a compound of ad- and currō (“to run”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *krs-e/o- (“to run”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid has it of the running up of Remus;^[2] Köbler dates it from Tacitus.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a running or rushing up, to see or to help:^[1] Valerius Maximus has someone hoping to escape a threatening danger by another's quick arrival.^[1] Statius has companions running up, Tacitus the people and the provinces rushing to a place, and Seneca citizens.^[2] It is also an attack or onset: Pliny the Elder admires how watchful and ready a spider's rush is when prey falls into its web.^[1]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of Remus running up.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of a spider's rush on its prey.^[1][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of crowds rushing up.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A running or rushing up, to see or to help.^[1][2]
2. An attack, onset.^[1]

Related words

• accurrō
• currō
• concursus

References

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