cursito

Forms

cursitō (present infinitive cursitāre); first conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cursō (“to run to and fro”) + -itō (“frequentative suffix”),^[2][1] and so a frequentative built on a frequentative: Latin grammarians called it the third degree after currō (“to run”) and the verb it is formed from.^[3] De Vaan explains the verbs and nouns in ⟨curs-⟩ as built on the participle cursus, and traces currō to Proto-Italic *korse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL find it first in Terence,^[4][3] whose Eunuchus has nē sursum deorsum cursitēs, “so that you don't keep running up and down”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare.^[5] Horace used it of boys and girls running here and there and of a host bustling about with his tunic girt up,^[3][5] Cicero of atoms moving to and fro at random,^[5][6] and the Rhetorica ad Herennium of athletes running races.^[5][6] With a destination it meant to go often or habitually somewhere: Caelius complains in a letter to Cicero that he has no one to run to, and Pliny the Younger tells of people hurrying now to Celsus, now to Nepos.^[3][5] The OLD also records it of the sea in quick motion.^[2]

Christian writers kept it: Jerome uses it in his letter on virginity,^[3] and Gregory of Tours writes of a blind woman who groped her way to the church every day.^[3] Medieval authors used it for roaming about and, with an object, for travelling over a place.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of running up and down.^[3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of atoms moving at random.^[5][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of boys and girls running about.^[3][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of marines ordered to run barefoot.^[3][8]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in a letter.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run about, run here and there.^[2][5]
2. To run often or habitually; to resort frequently (to a person or place).^[2][6]
3. To run races.^[5][6]
4. (of atoms) To move about.^[5][1]
5. (of the sea) To be in quick motion.^[2]

Word family

• cursitatio
• incursitō
• occursito

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de