admitto

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [adˈmɪt.toː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [adˈmit.to]^[1]

Forms

admittō (present infinitive admittere, perfect active admīsī, supine admissum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + mittō (“to send, let go”).^[2][3][4] Lewis & Short take its first meaning as “to send to”, then “to let come to”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has the perfect infinitive admisse, saying many have done shameful things for love.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Its central sense was to let in visitors or allow someone to enter, as in Terence and Cicero, and specially to receive a lover.^[2] It also meant to admit to an activity, a council or an office, and to put a male to a female for breeding, as in Varro's farming manual.^[2] Of things it meant to let in light or water, to admit to the ears or the mind, and to permit or tolerate.^[2] With guilt or a crime as object it meant to incur or commit: Terence's character asks what great crime he has committed.^[2] Of horses it meant to let go at full speed, equō admissō in Cicero and Caesar.^[2][7]

Medieval Latin used it of sending and of hastening as well as of admitting.^[8] English admit is recorded in the late 14th century as “let in”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of committing deeds.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of letting a visitor in.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of breeding animals.^[2][6]
• late 14th century – English admit is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To let in, admit, receive; to receive a lover.^[2][1]
2. To admit to an activity, office or rank.^[2]
3. To put to the female for breeding.^[2]
4. To let in, accept; to listen to; to allow, tolerate.^[2]
5. To commit, perpetrate; to incur guilt.^[2][1]
6. To let go, give rein to a horse.^[2][7]

Word family

• admissārius
• admissiō
• admissiuus
• admissor
• admissum
• admissura
• admissus

Related words

• mittō
• English admit

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften