caeco

Forms

caecō (present infinitive caecāre, perfect active caecāvī, supine caecātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin caecus (“blind”) + -ō.^[2][3][4]

Its base goes back to Proto-Italic *kaiko- and Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-ko- or *kh₂ei-ko- (“one-eyed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Lucretius,^[4] whose sol etiam caecat (“the sun, too, blinds”) is the OLD's first citation.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides blinding the eyes, it meant to blind the mind, to cloud the judgement, as when Cicero speaks of someone blinded by greed.^[2][5] Cicero also uses it of speech made obscure by its speed.^[2] In gardening Columella uses it of choking the eye or bud of a plant, and the OLD records a phrase with astū meaning to throw dust in someone's eyes, deceive.^[2][5]

In Late Latin Aurelius Victor uses it of a man struck blind, and Paulinus of Nola has it too.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius says the sun blinds.^[2][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the mind and of obscure speech.^[2][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of choking a plant's bud.^[2][6]
• c. 360 AD – Aurelius Victor uses it of a man who was struck blind.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make blind, deprive of sight; with astū, to deceive.^[2][5]
2. (gardening) To choke the eye or bud of a plant.^[2][5]
3. To blind morally, cloud the judgement.^[2][5]
4. To make obscure.^[2]

Word family

• caecator
• excaecō
• occaecō

Related words

• caecus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de