Etymologically
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circo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkɪr.koː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈt͡ʃir.ko][1]

Forms

circō (present infinitive circāre, perfect active circāvī, supine circātum); first conjugation, no passive[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circus (“circle”) + -ō.[2][1] The TLL derives it from circum or circā.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD, Lewis & Short and Gaffiot cite the land surveyors (Gromatici), of going round a hill.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to go about, traverse, go round, as of a mountain in the surveyors, and to wander about.[2][4][5]

It is the source of Italian cercare, French chercher and Catalan cercar “to seek”, and English search (c. 1300) comes from Old French cerchier, from Late Latin circāre “to go about”.[1][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – English search is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go round, traverse.[2][4]
  2. To wander about.[4]

Word family

  • circitō
  • circumcirco

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com