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celero

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word celero

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
2nd century BC, Turpilius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *kel-i-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin celer
Latin celero
From the same root
Latin celeritas ← celer
Latin celeriter ← celer

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɛ.ɫɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃɛː.le.ro][1]

Forms

celerō (present infinitive celerāre, perfect active celerāvī, supine celerātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Latin celer (“swift”) + -ō.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces celer to Proto-Italic *keli-r/li- (“fast”) and Proto-Indo-European *kel-i- (“speeding”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first quotation is from Turpilius, of speeding up a boat.[2]

Semantic evolution

Intransitively it is to go quickly, hasten, hurry, as in Catullus' dances, and to act quickly, as in Tacitus.[2] With an object it is to perform quickly or hasten, as a flight, a journey or one's step: Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid use it so, and Virgil's Achates hurries on his way to the ships.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic or post-Augustan, with the synonyms festīnāre and properāre.[5] Manuscripts confuse it with celebrō.[3] Church Latin glosses it to hasten, hurry.[6]

Timeline

  • 2nd century BC – Turpilius of speeding a boat.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius.[5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of hurrying dances.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of hastening flight.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go quickly, hasten, hurry; to act quickly.[2][5][1][6]
  2. To do quickly, hasten (a journey, one's pace).[2][5]
  3. To make faster, accelerate, quicken.[2][1]

Word family

  • accelerō
  • celerātim
  • praecelerō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Celero.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/celero. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·