crepito

Forms

crepitō (present infinitive crepitāre, perfect active crepitāvī, supine crepitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crepō (“to rattle, crack”) + -itō, a frequentative.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces crepō to Proto-Italic *krepa- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to rattle, crackle”).^[5] He compares Sanskrit कृपते (kṛpate, “to wean, mourn”) and Hittite karp- (“to be angry”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus; the TLL marks that attestation as doubtful and next cites Plautus.^[5][4] Lewis & Short's first example is Plautus, of teeth chattering.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to make a quick run of sharp noises: to rattle, rustle, clatter or chatter, and of flames or burning things to crackle.^[2][3] Lucretius also has the chattering of teeth, and Ovid a bird's thin beak and pebbles rattled by a wave.^[3] Lewis & Short call it poetic or post-Augustan prose.^[3] Ancient glosses explain it as making a sound or resounding.^[4] Church Latin glosses it to crack, crackle, crash.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of chattering teeth.^[3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a bird's beak and of pebbles in a wave.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a quick succession of sharp noises: to rattle, rustle, clatter, chatter; of flames, to crackle.^[2][3][1][7]
2. To chatter, mumble.^[1]

Word family

• concrepito
• crepitāculum
• discrepitō
• increpitō

Related words

• crepō
• crepitus

References

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