Etymologically
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coopto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [koˈɔp.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koˈɔp.to][1]

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

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