Etymologically
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complano

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔmˈpɫaː.noː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [komˈplaː.no][1]

Forms

complānō (present infinitive complānāre, perfect active complānāvī, supine complānātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin com- + plānus1 (“flat, level”) + -ō.[2][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *plāno- and Proto-Indo-European *pl(e)h₂-nó- (“flattened”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Cato, who tells the farmer to level the earth tabulā aut pedibus, with a board or with the feet.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to make level, and Lewis and Short call it rare.[6] Suetonius uses it of cutting down mountain ridges and of filling in a lake.[6][7] Of a building it meant to level with the ground, to raze: Cicero recalls that the house of Spurius Maelius, who aimed at kingship, was pulled down.[2][6] Seneca uses it figuratively of smoothing out hardships.[2][5] The Vulgate has it of levelling a road and, figuratively, in Sirach.[7][5]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of levelling the ground.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the razing of a house.[2][8]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of smoothing out difficulties.[2][8]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of levelling mountain ridges.[6][8]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of levelling a road.[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make (ground) level or flat.[2][6]
  2. (figurative) To smooth out (difficulties).[2]
  3. To bring down to the ground, raze (a building).[2][6]

Word family

  • complānātor

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de