commonefacio

Forms

commonefaciō (present infinitive commonefacere, perfect active commonefēcī, supine commonefactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, suppletive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin commoneō (“to remind”) + faciō (“to make, do”), formed like condocefaciō.^[2][3][1] The first part is a compound of con- and moneō (“to remind, warn”),^[2][4] which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *moneje- and Proto-Indo-European *mon-eie- (“to make think of, remind”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus (c. 250–184 BC) on;^[3][6] in the Stichus a speaker threatens to remind the household with “ox-hide monuments”, that is, with the whip, if he finds anything out of place.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It means to remind someone forcibly, to admonish, and to impress something on a person;^[8][2] L&S find it in good prose, most often in Cicero.^[8][2] It takes the accusative of the person, the genitive of the thing (veteris amicitiae, “of their old friendship”, in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, benefici sui in Sallust), a clause with ut, or an accusative and infinitive.^[2][8][9] Cicero uses it of a speech that recalled a man's crimes to everyone in Sicily, Seneca of a single point he wishes to impress, and Vitruvius of the hut of Romulus on the Capitol, which can remind people of the customs of old.^[2] The passive is commonefīō.^[2][8] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense of strongly reminding and admonishing.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a joking threat in the Stichus.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it often, of reminding and of recalling crimes to mind.^[2][8][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it with the genitive of a favour done.^[2][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of Romulus' hut recalling old customs.^[2][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the participle of being reminded of a night-time oracle.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remind (someone, of something), admonish, warn.^[2][8]
2. To recall (a thing) to mind; to impress (something) on a person.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson