conclamo

Forms

conclāmō (present infinitive conclāmāre, perfect active conclāmāvī, supine conclāmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from con- (“together”) and clāmō (“to shout”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes ⟨clāmō⟩ as a verb made from a noun meaning “shout”, from Proto-Italic *klām-o/ā- (“shout(ing)”) and Proto-Indo-European *klh₁-m(o)-, to the root of calō (“to call”), Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call”), cognate with Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).^[4]

Servius took it as “to shout loudly or often”, and a grammarian as to shout with many others.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus,^[3] who has “do you want an auction proclaimed?” in the Menaechmi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to shout aloud, cry out or exclaim, often of many people together, and to acclaim, as Statius' crowd hailing the author of peace; it is to cry out to or invoke, as Seneca's victor calling on all the gods, and Martial uses it of rocks made to ring with lament.^[2][5] In the army it is to give a signal: ad arma conclāmāre is to call to arms, as Caesar's men who believed the enemy were coming, and vāsa conclāmāre to give the signal to pack up.^[2][5][1] It is to call up or summon, as Virgil's Allecto calling out the farmers.^[2][1]

It is to mourn the dead with loud cries, as Livy's houses that had wailed for their dead, and the impersonal conclāmātum est means “all is lost”.^[2][5][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of proclaiming an auction.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero on the cry endoplōrātō.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the call to arms.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of wailing for the dead.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shout aloud, cry out together, exclaim; to acclaim; to invoke.^[2][5][1]
2. (military) To give a signal: ad arma, to call to arms;^[2][5][1] vāsa, to give the signal to pack up.^[2][5][1]
3. To call up, summon.^[2][1]
4. To bewail the dead;^[2][5][1] conclāmātum est, all is lost.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• conclāmātiō
• conclāmātus
• conclāmitō

Related words

• clāmō
• clāmor
• exclāmō
• acclāmō
• calō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de