careo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈka.re.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkaː.re.o]^[1]

Forms

careō (present infinitive carēre, perfect active caruī, supine caritum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kasē- (“to lack”), with /s/ becoming /r/ between vowels.^[2][1] The pair careō and castus “pure”, its old participle, proves an original root *kas-.^[2] Cognate with Faliscan carefo (“I will lack”) and Oscan kasit (“it is necessary”).^[2][3][4] A link with Sanskrit शसति (śásati, “cuts”) through *ḱes- “to cut” is old, but de Vaan rejects it as semantically weak.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, where someone asks to be ordered to go without food.^[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

With the ablative it meant to be without, not to have, and to go without something desirable or necessary.^[3] It also meant to be free from danger or trouble, to abstain from something on purpose, as from the senate, and to be deprived or bereft of something.^[3] Cicero discusses its meaning in the Tusculan Disputations.^[6]

It survives in Spanish carecer and Portuguese carecer.^[1] Its third person caret “(something) is lacking” became the proof-reader's mark English caret in the 1680s.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has someone ordered to go without food.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero discusses its meaning.^[6][5]
• 1680s – English caret is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be without, lack.^[3]
2. To go without.^[3]
3. To be free from.^[3]
4. To abstain from.^[3]
5. To be deprived of, lose.^[3]

Word family

• caresco
• carians
• cariēs

Related words

• cassus
• castrō
• castus
• English caret

Usage notes

Döderlein says that carēre concerns a desirable possession, as against egēre and indigēre, which concern what is necessary: Seneca says virtue often lacks pleasure but never needs it.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper