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arto

Etymology and origin of the Latin word arto

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*h₂er-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin artus
Latin articulus
Latin arto
Latin coarto

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈar.toː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈar.to][1]

Forms

artō (present infinitive artāre, perfect active artāvī, supine artātum); first conjugation[1] Also spelled arctō, which Lewis & Short reject.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin artus (“close, narrow”) + -ō.[2][1] The TLL says it replaced an older verb ⟨artīre⟩.[4] De Vaan traces ⟨artus⟩ to Proto-Italic *arto-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥-tó- (“fitted”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Among the OLD's earliest citations are Plautus, Varro and Livy.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

Not found in Cicero, it meant to fix firmly, wedge in, as in Columella; to pull tight, close firmly, as in Celsus; to restrict, hem in, cramp, as in Pliny; to pack or crowd together, compress, as in Seneca and Martial; especially in geography, to make narrower, and in the passive to narrow; and to reduce, curtail, as in Livy.[2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of curtailing.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of crowding.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fix firmly, wedge in.[2]
  2. To pull tight; to close firmly.[2]
  3. To restrict, cramp.[2]
  4. To pack together, compress.[2]
  5. To make narrower, (passive) to narrow.[2]
  6. To reduce, curtail.[2]

Word family

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de

Derived terms

Cite this entry

“Arto.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/arto. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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