coepto

Forms

coeptō (present infinitive coeptāre, perfect active coeptāvī, supine coeptātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin coepī (“to have begun”) + -tō, a frequentative.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists the older coepiō (“to begin”) and this verb under apīscor (“to get, reach”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *ap-(e)i- (“to get, seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁p-i- (“to get, grab”), comparing Hittite epp-zi (“to take, grab”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, where someone is asked why he is setting about such a plan.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

With an infinitive it is to begin or to set about doing something: Cicero's translation of Aratus has sailors beginning to reach safe harbours, and Tacitus has an officer trying to check a mutiny.^[2] With an accusative it is to venture on or attempt something, and Tacitus also uses it intransitively, of a movement of the legions beginning.^[2] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and Tacitean, found only once in Cicero's prose.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of setting about a plan.^[2][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in his translation of Aratus.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of beginning, trying and commencing.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to do something; to set to work, try.^[2][5][1]
2. To venture on, undertake, attempt.^[2][5][1]
3. To be begun, commence.^[2][1]

Related words

• coepī

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de