Etymologically
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adaperio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [a.daˈpɛ.ri.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.daˈpɛː.ri.o][1]

Forms

adaperiō (present infinitive adaperīre, perfect active adaperuī, supine adapertum); fourth conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + aperiō (“to open, uncover”).[2][1][3] Lewis and Short take the prefix as intensive.[4] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *ap-wer-je- (“to open”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)p (“off”) and *h₂u̯er-i(e/o)- (“to cover”); its opposite is operiō “to cover”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is in Varro, who lists among the signs of fever in animals an open mouth with moist breath (adapertum ōs).[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to open wide, as a door, gate or mouth, and Lewis and Short note that Cicero does not use it.[2][4] Livy has attackers fall on gates thrown open and a tunnel opened up;[2][4] Seneca opens a book;[2][4] Curtius speaks of a king's ears opened to the slanders of the envious.[2][4] In medical writing it was used of loosening the bowels and of opening a vein,[2] and it could mean to uncover or bare, as the head, or to reveal to view and to knowledge.[2][7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the open mouth of a feverish animal.[2][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of gates and of a mine broken open.[2][4][8]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in medical senses.[2][8]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of opening a book.[2][8]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of the truth being revealed.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To open wide, throw open (a door, the mouth); to unroll a book.[2][4]
  2. (figurative) To open (the ears) to information.[2]
  3. To break open;[2] (medicine) to loosen (the bowels).[2]
  4. To make by opening, open up (a vein).[2]
  5. To uncover, bare, expose to view; to reveal.[2][7]

Word family

  • adapertilis
  • adapertiō
  • sēmiadapertus
  • adapertus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de