Etymologically
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coeptum

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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]

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