assuefacio

Forms

assuēfaciō (present infinitive assuēfacere, perfect active assuēfēcī, supine assuēfactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, suppletive^[1] It is also spelled adsuēfaciō, with the unassimilated prefix.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin assuēscō (“to become accustomed”) + faciō (“to make, do”), “to make accustomed”, with the first part in the shortened form ⟨assuē-⟩.^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest authors cited for it are Cicero and Caesar,^[3][5] who use it to accustom someone to something: Cicero writes of a household used to pure speech (purō sermōne assuēfacta domus), and Caesar of soldiers accustomed to a certain kind of fighting.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero's time the thing someone is accustomed to stands in the ablative; later authors also use the dative, ad with the accusative, in with the ablative, or an infinitive.^[3][5] So Livy writes of accustoming the people to the punishment of the patricians (ad supplicia patrum), Tacitus of children brought up to licence rather than modesty, and Valerius Maximus of a man accustoming himself to the Persian language.^[4] Cicero already has the infinitive, of making peoples used to obeying the rule of the Roman people.^[5]

The Italian verb assuefare continues it.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a household used to pure speech.^[3][4][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of soldiers used to a kind of fighting.^[3][4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it with ad and with the dative.^[4][5][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it with the dative.^[4][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make used to something, accustom, habituate, inure (with the ablative, dative, ad or an infinitive).^[2][3][4]

Related words

• assuēscō
• assuētus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de