Etymologically
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asporto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [asˈpɔr.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [asˈpɔr.to][1]

Forms

asportō (present infinitive asportāre, perfect active asportāvī, supine asportātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin abs- + portō (“to carry”), with ⟨abs-⟩ reduced to ⟨as-⟩ before ⟨p⟩.[2][3][4] De Vaan traces portō to Proto-Italic *porto/ā- and Proto-Indo-European *pr̥to- (“passed, crossed”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of carrying people off by ship, across the sea.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to carry off, take away, remove: Cicero has a statue carried off from a temple of Ceres, and Nepos has all their goods carried to Salamis.[4] Of persons, it is to carry away, especially by ship, to transport, as in Plautus and Terence.[4] Livy uses it of the ships that carried away money.[2] Lewis & Short note that classical writers use it only in prose.[4] The Vulgate has asportāte ossa mea vōbīscum, carry my bones with you.[4] Church Latin glosses it to bring.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of carrying off by ship.[4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of carrying someone away.[4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a statue carried off.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To carry off, take away, remove.[2][4][1]
  2. To carry away by ship, transport.[4][1]

Word family

  • asportātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson