adipiscor

Forms

adipīscor (present infinitive adipīscī, perfect active adeptus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1] Plautus and Terence have the old infinitive adipīscier.^[2][3] Sallust, Tacitus and Suetonius also use it in a passive sense.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and apīscor (“to reach, get”), with the vowel of the root weakened.^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives ⟨apīscor⟩, which he does not separate from apiō (“to tie”) and aptus (“tied, fitted”), from Proto-Italic *ap-(e)i- (“to get, seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁p-i- (“to get, grab”).^[4] Cognate with Hittite epp- (“to take, grab”) and Sanskrit आप (ā́pa, “has reached”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has a parasite recall the jokes with which he used to win monthly dinners, in the Captivi, and “you have the chance to win glory, praise, honour” in the Stichus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first to catch up with or overtake, as Livy's Romans who easily overtook their tired enemies, and to reach a place or a stage of life, as Cicero's old age that all wish to reach and then blame once they have reached it.^[2][5] More often it is to obtain, win or achieve, whether a thing or glory, power and the like;^[2][5][1] mortem adipīscī is to bring about one's own death, in Suetonius.^[2][5][1] It is also to come into an inheritance or succeed to a throne, as in Nepos, and of things to receive a name, as Lucretius' earth that has rightly been given the name of mother.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “obtain, acquire, gain, achieve, reach”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of winning dinners and glory.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the earth that has acquired the name of mother.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of reaching old age.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of overtaking the enemy.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To overtake, catch up with; to reach (a place, a stage of life).^[2][5][1][6]
2. To obtain, acquire, win, achieve;^[2][5][1][6] mortem adipīscī, to bring about one's own death.^[2]
3. To succeed to, come into (an inheritance); to be given (a name).^[2]

Word family

• adeptiō
• adeptus

Related words

• apīscor
• aptus
• coepiō
• indipīscor
• cōpula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 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 c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de