Etymologically
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cursito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkʊr.sɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkur.si.to][1]

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

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