coopto

Forms

cooptō (present infinitive cooptāre, perfect active cooptāvī, supine cooptātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also written cōptō, as in inscriptions and a letter of Cicero.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + optō (“to choose”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces optō to Proto-Italic *opeje- (“to choose, grab”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁op-eie- (“to choose, grab”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it first in Cicero,^[3] who in the speeches against Verres speaks of choosing senators.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a technical term of public life: to choose someone as a colleague or a member of one's college, to co-opt.^[2][5] Cicero uses it of admission to the senate and of election to the college of augurs;^[5] Livy quotes an old formula with the perfect subjunctive cooptāssint for tribunes of the plebs co-opting colleagues, and Suetonius has priests chosen by their colleges and Augustus taking a colleague.^[5] More loosely it is to choose or elect: Cicero speaks of a senate that Caesar had chosen for the most part himself.^[2] Stelten gives "elect" and also "make fit, join together, get ready" for Church Latin.^[6] The English co-opt was taken from it in the 1650s.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of choosing senators and augurs.^[5][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy quotes an old formula for co-opting tribunes.^[5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of priests chosen by their colleges.^[5]
• 1650s – co-opt appears in English.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To choose as a colleague or member of a college or body, to co-opt.^[2][5][1]
2. To choose, elect.^[2][1][6]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To make fit, join together, get ready.^[6]

Word family

• cooptātiō

Related words

• optō
• English co-opt

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com