circito

Forms

circitō (present infinitive circitāre); first conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is a frequentative, which the OLD forms from Latin circumeō (“to go round”) + -tō;^[2] Lewis and Short explain it as standing for ⟨circuitō⟩, from circueō, a form of circumeō.^[3] The TLL thinks it more likely connected with circitor (“watchman, patrol”) than derived from circō (“to go round”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only literary use is in Seneca's letters,^[4] where he speaks of “all those arts by which the city is kept busy or made noisy”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The OLD takes Seneca's word to mean going round as a hawker, and Lewis and Short “to frequent, make busy”;^[2][3] the TLL explains it as “to disturb, throw into confusion”.^[4] The Latin–Greek glossaries render it with Ancient Greek περινοστῶ (perinostô, “to go about”) and κυκλεύω (kukleúō, “to go round”).^[3][4] The TLL connects Romanian cerceta with it.^[4]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the passive of the arts that keep a city busy.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go round as a hawker or peddler.^[2][1]
2. To frequent, to keep busy.^[3][1]
3. To disturb, throw into confusion.^[4]

References

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