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concrepo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word concrepo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*ḱrep-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin crepo
French crever
Latin crepitus
Latin crepito
Latin increpo
Latin increpito
Latin discrepo
Latin decrepitus
Latin concrepo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔŋ.krɛ.poː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔŋ.kre.po][1]

Forms

concrepō (present infinitive concrepāre, perfect active concrepuī, supine concrepitum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + crepō (“to rattle, creak”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces crepō to Proto-Italic *krepa- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to rattle, crackle”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it frequent in Plautus, who uses it of a door creaking open: the neighbour's door has creaked.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It means to make a noise, of doors to grate or creak, of musical instruments to sound, of arms to clash.[2][5] Sisenna has men massed together clash their arms, and digitīs concrepāre is to snap one's fingers.[2] Transitively it is to make something sound: Ovid has someone clash Temesan bronze.[2] After Plautus it becomes rare, a few times each in Terence, Cicero, Caesar, Ovid, Propertius and Livy and not at all in Cato, Lucretius, Sallust, Virgil or Horace, and it is used often again from the 2nd century AD.[3] Church Latin glosses it sound, resound, rattle.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of creaking doors.[2][3]
  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna of clashing arms.[2]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of clashing bronze.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make a noise; of doors, to creak, grate; to sound, rattle, clash.[2][5][1][6]
  2. digitīs concrepāre: to snap one's fingers.[2][1]
  3. (transitive) To make sound, clash; to beat.[2][1]

Word family

  • concrepatio

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Concrepo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/concrepo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·