coeptum

Forms

coeptum n (genitive coeptī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin coeptus (“begun”), the neuter participle of coepī (“I began”) used as a noun.^[2][1] De Vaan explains the verb coepiō as co- with the verb seen in apīscor (“to get, reach”), the perfect ⟨coep-⟩ being contracted from ⟨co-ēp-⟩ or influenced by the participle, from *ko-aptos; he traces apīscor to Proto-Italic *ap-(e)i- (“to get, seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁p-i- (“to get, grab”).^[3] Cognate with Hittite epp- (“to take, grab”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's first example is Lucretius, “to resume weaving the work begun into words”;^[4] Köbler dates it from Virgil.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is something started or taken in hand, an undertaking, enterprise or scheme, mostly in the plural.^[2][4] Lewis & Short note that it is most frequent after the Augustan period, perhaps never in Cicero and not in Horace.^[4] Virgil speaks of monstrous undertakings, Ovid of “my undertakings” at the start of the Metamorphoses, and Livy of things well or rashly begun.^[4] Church Latin glosses it beginning, undertaking.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a work begun.^[4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of monstrous undertakings.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of his own undertakings.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a bold enterprise.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something begun, an undertaking, enterprise, scheme; usually in the plural.^[2][4][1]
2. A beginning.^[6][4][1]

Related words

• coepiō
• coeptō
• apīscor

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson