Etymologically
Log in

corripio

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word corripio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (rapiō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin rapio
Latin rapina
Latin eripio
Latin corripio
Latin diripio

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔrˈrɪ.pi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [korˈriː.pi.o][1]

Forms

corripiō (present infinitive corripere, perfect active corripuī, supine correptum); third (-iō variant) conjugation[1] It is also spelled conripiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + rapiō (“to seize”).[2][4][1] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *rap-i- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rp-i-, cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”) and Albanian rjep (“to tear off, rob”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Mercator: ut corripuit sē repente atque abiit!, “how suddenly he took himself off and went!”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is seizing quickly: snatching up (arma corripere, “to take up arms”), arresting a person (Cicero), catching fire, and hurrying over ground (Virgil's chariots “devour” the plain).[2] It is used of seizing money or a city unlawfully or by force, of floods and whirlwinds sweeping things away, of applause carrying a man away, and of diseases and passions attacking.[2][3] Horace uses it for rebuking someone, and Lucretius for limbs contracting in fear and for shortening (the “shortened daylight”); grammarians from Quintilian on use it of pronouncing a syllable short.[2][1]

In Church Latin “reproach, reprove” comes first among its senses, beside “seize, rob, plunder, usurp”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of hurrying off.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of shortening and of limbs contracting.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of arresting a man.[2][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of rebuking.[2][7]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of pronouncing a syllable short.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To seize, snatch up, grasp; to arrest.[2][1]
  2. (of fire) To catch.[2]
  3. To hurry over (ground); (reflexive) to rouse oneself, hurry off.[2][1]
  4. To seize unlawfully, appropriate, usurp; to take (a city) by force.[2][1][6]
  5. (of floods, storms) To sweep away; to carry away (emotionally).[2]
  6. (of diseases, passions) To attack, overcome.[2]
  7. To rebuke, censure, reproach.[2][1][6]
  8. To contract (the limbs) convulsively.[2]
  9. To shorten, abridge;[2][1] (grammar) to pronounce (a syllable) short.[2][1]

Word family

  • correptiō
  • correptor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Corripio.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/corripio. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·