Etymologically
Log in

contrecto

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 00:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔnˈtrɛk.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [konˈtrɛk.to][1]

Forms

contrectō (present infinitive contrectāre, perfect active contrectāvī, supine contrectātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled contractō, in Plautus, Lucretius, the two Senecas and Suetonius.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + tractō (“to handle”).[2][3][4] That verb is formed from trahō (“to drag”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus,[3] where a speaker longs to address, embrace and caress someone (contrectāre).[2]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius has the sun touching the bare body of water,[5][6] and Ovid has it of a breast.[6][7] Horace warns his book that it will be soiled by the hands of the crowd,[2][4] and Suetonius has it of handling money and of searching people by feeling them.[7][5] The amorous sense of Plautus went on to mean sexual intercourse, as in Suetonius,[2][7] and the law used it of laying hands on another's property, theft or embezzlement, as in Julian and Gaius.[2][7]

Figuratively it meant to handle a subject or to dwell on something in the mind: Cicero says that subjects too large to grasp whole are handled more easily when taken apart.[2] Medieval Latin added to examine, to undertake, and in church use to profane what is holy; in law it still meant to steal.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of caressing.[2][9]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the sun touching water.[6][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of handling a subject.[2][9]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a book handled by the crowd.[2][9]
  • 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of appropriating another's property.[7][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To touch repeatedly, handle, finger.[2][6]
  2. To caress, fondle; to have sexual intercourse with.[2][7]
  3. (law) To handle unlawfully, embezzle, steal.[2][8]
  4. (figurative) To deal with (a subject); to dwell on in the mind, contemplate.[2][1][10]
  5. (Medieval Latin) To examine;[8] (ecclesiastical) to profane.[8]

Word family

  • contrectabilis
  • contrectātiō
  • contrectātor
  • praecontrectō
  • contractabilis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier