appeto

Forms

appetō (present infinitive appetere, perfect active appetīvī or appetiī, supine appetītum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- (“to, towards”) + petō (“to make for, seek”).^[2][3][1] It is also written ⟨adpetō⟩ with the unassimilated prefix.^[2][4][5] De Vaan traces petō to Proto-Italic *pet-e/o- and a root meaning “to fly”, assuming a shift from “fly up towards” to “make for, try to get”, and notes that the etymology is not self-evident.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it:^[2][7] in the Cistellaria a lover complains that Love mocks him, puts him to flight, drives him and attacks him, and in the Mostellaria noon is drawing near (iam appetit meridie).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is reaching out for something: Cicero tells of the infant Jupiter in the lap of Fortune reaching for the breast.^[2] From this it means to seek, aim at and desire, by nature or by will, and Cato already uses it of oxen that should take their fodder more eagerly.^[2] It is used of courting someone's friendship, as Caesar says Ariovistus had sought that of the Roman people,^[2] of going for a person with hostile intent,^[2][4] and intransitively of a time or event that draws near, as when Livy says the fates were closing in on Veii.^[2]

Medieval writers used it of going to a place or person, of attacking, and with a reflexive of taking one's own life.^[5] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the senses of pursuing, attacking and desiring.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of attacking and of noon drawing near.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of oxen seeking their food.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the infant Jupiter reaching for the breast.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the fates closing in on Veii.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To try to reach, stretch out for.^[2][4]
2. To make for, resort to (a place).^[2]
3. To have a natural desire for; to have an appetite for (food).^[2][8]
4. To seek to obtain, strive after, aim at; to claim for oneself.^[2][4]
5. To court, seek the friendship of.^[2]
6. To attack, assail; to attempt a person's life.^[2][4][8]
7. To take up, tackle (a task).^[2]
8. (intransitive, of time or events) To draw near, approach.^[2][4]
9. To fetch from outside.^[2]
10. (Medieval Latin, reflexive) To kill oneself.^[5]

Word family

• appetentia
• appetibilis
• appetissō
• appetītiō
• appetītor
• appetītrīx
• appetītus
• appetēns
• appetenter

Usage notes

A different word appetō (genitive appetōnis), “a covetous person”, made from the verb, is known only from a line of Laberius quoted by Nonius, who explains it from adpetendo.^[2][4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 q r s t u v w 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson