Etymologically
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apiscor

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [aˈpiːs.kɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [aˈpis.kor][1]

Forms

apīscor (present infinitive apīscī, perfect active aptus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ap-(e)i- (“to get, seize”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁p-i- (“to get, grab”), with the suffix -scō.[2][3] Cognate with Hittite epzi (“takes”), Sanskrit आप (ā́pa, “has reached”) and Avestan āpa (“has reached”).[2][1] De Vaan sees no need to separate it from apiō “to tie”, which kept the narrower sense; so aptus means both “tied” and “obtained”.[2] The perfect coepī “I began”, from *co-ēpī, belongs to it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius; the oldest texts also have an active apīscō.[2] Köbler dates Naevius c. 235–200 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to reach for and seize, grasp, as Plautus' sine mē hominem apīscī “let me catch the man”, and then to get, obtain, secure, as Terence's “we have obtained the life of the gods”.[3] Lucretius uses it of diseases that seize the body.[5] It was rarer than its compound adipīscor, but common again in Tacitus.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of catching a man.[3][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of obtaining.[3][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it often.[6][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To seize, grasp.[3]
  2. To get, obtain, secure.[3]

Word family

  • adipīscor
  • redipiscor
  • indipīscor

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press