antiquo

Forms

antīquō (present infinitive antīquāre, perfect active antīquāvī, supine antīquātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin antīquus + -ō, a verb made from the adjective meaning “old, former”.^[2][1] Lewis and Short compare the pair vetō (“to forbid”) and vetus (“old”).^[3]

Paulus' epitome of Festus defines it as bringing something back to its former state,^[2][3][4] which explains its use for rejecting a bill: the law stays as it was.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero (81–43 BC) has it first, writing to Atticus that a man was working to have a bill he himself had proposed rejected.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is only a technical term of public life, used of a law, bill or plebiscite that the people vote down.^[3][4] Livy uses it often of the tribes in the assembly, as when more tribes rejected a law than passed it.^[2][4]

Later it came to mean “to make obsolete, abolish”: Nonius glosses it as being forgotten, Charisius speaks of forms given up by common usage, and Solinus of a town whose former name was dropped.^[4] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for “to make old”.^[6][1] English antiquate comes from its past participle.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of rejecting a bill.^[2][4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it often of the tribes voting down laws.^[2][4][5]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus uses it of a former name that was abolished.^[4][5]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus wishes that forgetting may wipe out an unpleasant rumour.^[4][5]
• 1590s – English borrows its past participle as antiquate.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring back to the former state (as Paulus' epitome of Festus defines it).^[2][3]
2. (politics) To reject a bill; to vote for its rejection.^[2][3][4]
3. (Late Latin) To make obsolete, abolish, put out of memory.^[4]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To make old.^[6][1]

Word family

• antīquātiō

Related words

• antīquārius
• antīquē
• antīquitās
• antīquitus
• antīquus
• English antiquate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com