actito

Forms

āctitō (present infinitive āctitāre, perfect active āctitāvī, supine āctitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin agō (“to do, drive; to plead”) + -itō, a frequentative.^[2][3][1] Gellius notes that its first syllable is long, because it comes from ⟨āctus⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in the Brutus, says of Marcus Pontidius that he pleaded many private cases.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is used only of action in court and on the stage:^[3] in Cicero it is to plead cases often or make a practice of pleading, and to act in tragedies.^[2][4] Martial complains that Titus makes him plead cases,^[4] and Tacitus uses it more generally of doing the same things over and over.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pleading cases and of acting in tragedies.^[2][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of pleading cases.^[4][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of doing things repeatedly.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To do repeatedly; to perform (an act).^[2]
2. To plead (cases) often, make a practice of pleading.^[2][3]
3. To act (in plays), be an actor in.^[2][3]

Related words

• āctor
• āctus

References

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