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admitto

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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

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