calleo

Forms

calleō (present infinitive callēre, perfect active calluī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It has no supine.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin callum (“hardened skin”) + -eō,^[2][1][3] perhaps through an older adjective meaning “hard”.^[1][4] De Vaan traces callum to Proto-Italic *kaln/so- (“hard”) and compares Old Irish calath (“hard”) and Welsh caled (“hard”), but finds its Indo-European origin uncertain.^[4] Nonius explained the verb as meaning “knows”, from calliditās (“shrewdness”), and also from callousness.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has ribs calloused with blows, plagis costae callent.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense, to be hard or calloused, is rare;^[3] Plautus plays on both senses, being more “hardened” than boar's hide.^[2][3] Figuratively it is to be callous or insensible: Servius Sulpicius writes to Cicero that a mind practised in such misfortunes should by now be hardened.^[2][3] More often it means to be practised or skilled in something, as in Accius' question whether someone is skilled in craft and deceit.^[2][3] Transitively it is to know by experience: Plautus has “how thoroughly he knows everything!”, Pacuvius “they know how to fear their masters' orders”, and Terence “I know how that is usually done”.^[2] Church Latin has it as to be hardened, know by experience, understand.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of calloused ribs and of knowing.^[2][4][7]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius, “know how to”.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, with an object clause.^[2][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, “skilled in”.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be hard, callous;^[2][3][1] of the mind, to be hardened, unfeeling.^[2][3][1]
2. (intransitive) To be practised or skilled (in).^[2][3][1]
3. (transitive) To know by experience, understand; to know how to.^[2][1][6]

Word family

• callidus
• calliscō
• callēns
• callenter
• concallēscō
• percalleō

Related words

• callum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de