Etymologically
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conscisco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kõːˈskiːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon̠ʲˈʃis.ko][1]

Forms

cōnscīscō (present infinitive cōnscīscere, perfect active cōnscīvī or cōnsciī, supine cōnscītum); third conjugation[1] The archaic cōscīscō is in Cicero's laws.[2] The perfect infinitive is always cōnscīsse.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + scīscō (“to ordain, decree”).[2][1][3] scīscō is the inchoative of sciō (“to know”),[1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *skije/o- and Proto-Indo-European *skh₁-i(e/o)- (“to incise”), “to know” having grown out of “to distinguish, decide”;[5] cognate with Ancient Greek σχάω (skháō, “to slit open”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Miles gloriosus, of bringing death on oneself some other way.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As a term of public law it is to decree or resolve formally: the old formula for declaring war in Livy has the senate cēnsuit, cōnsēnsit, cōnscīvit that there should be war, and Cicero's laws speak of what the people order or forbid by vote.[6][2] Livy has peoples resolving on war or on flight.[2][6] A letter of Brutus speaks of the deed he had resolved on.[2] Usually with sibi, it is to decree something for oneself, to bring it on oneself, above all death: Lucretius has men bringing death on themselves, and Cicero death by poison.[2][6] Livy has voluntary exile, and Gellius blinding oneself by skill.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of bringing death on oneself.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, sibi lētum cōnscīscere.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, in the language of laws and of suicide by poison.[2][6][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, in the formula for declaring war.[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To decree, ordain, resolve upon formally.[2][6][1]
  2. (usually with sibi) To decree for oneself, bring on oneself;[2][6][1] mortem sibi cōnscīscere, to take one's own life.[2][6][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de