baeto

Forms

baetō (present infinitive baetere); third conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1] Also spelled bētō and bītō; the OLD lists the verb under bītō.^[2][3] The Twelve Tables and Pacuvius have bae-, Pacuvius also bē-, and Plautus bī- four times.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[3][1] De Vaan takes ⟨baetō⟩ to be the original form, which sometimes became ⟨bētō⟩, while ⟨-bītō⟩ was the regular outcome in non-initial syllables, in the compounds; where Plautus has ⟨bītō⟩ on its own, it is taken back from the compounds.^[3] Wiktionary ascribes ⟨bētō⟩ to rural monophthongisation.^[1] A possible cognate is Umbrian ebetraf, perhaps “city border”, if it comes from *eχ-bait-rā- (“exit”).^[3] The TLL tentatively compares arbiter.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in the Twelve Tables and in Plautus (c. 250–184 BC),^[3][5] meaning “to go”: in the Pseudolus a character asks whether he may go or not (bitere an non licet?).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Pacuvius uses it of being prevented from going (si ire conor, prohibet baetere),^[2] and Plautus also with a place to which one goes.^[2] Plautus has many compounds: adbītō “to approach”, ēbītō “to go out”, imbītō “to enter”, interbītō “to fail”, praeterbītō “to go past”, rebītō “to return” and trānsbītō “to come across”; perbītō “to perish” goes back to Livius Andronicus, and Pacuvius has prōbītō “to go forward”.^[3] Nonius explains baetere as ire, and the glossaries gloss its forms with words for going and entering.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses bītō and its compounds.^[3][2][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses baetō and prōbītō.^[3][2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• adbītō
• ēbītō
• imbītō
• interbītō
• perbītō
• praeterbītō
• prōbītō
• rebītō
• trānsbītō

Related words

• arbiter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de