decerto

Forms

dēcertō (present infinitive dēcertāre, perfect active dēcertāvī, supine dēcertātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from dē- (“down, to the end”) and certō (“to contend”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists both under certus (“decided, sure”), the old participle of cernō (“to sift, decide”), from Proto-Italic *kritos and Proto-Indo-European *kri-to-, of the root Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sift, separate”), cognate with Ancient Greek κρίνω (krínō, “to separate, judge”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the historian Sempronius Asellio,^[4] who says a general should not fight a pitched battle to a decision unless forced to.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to fight an issue out or to the finish, as against certāre, to fight without regard to the result, though Lewis and Short note that the distinction was not strictly kept.^[5] Cicero uses it of Mithridates, who alone fought it out for empire with so many Roman generals.^[2] It is also to contend in words, as Cicero's “it was not to be decided by debate but fought out with arms”, and in games, as Mela's contests of girls.^[2] In Statius it is transitive, to struggle for something, of kingdoms fought over with impious hatred.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “strive”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 100 BC – Asellio of fighting a battle to a decision.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Mithridates and of debate.^[2][7]
• 43/44 AD – Mela of girls' contests.^[2][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius of kingdoms fought over.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fight an issue out, fight to the finish.^[2][5][1]
2. To argue out, contend, dispute; to compete in games.^[2][1][6]
3. To struggle or compete for.^[2]

Related words

• certō
• certus
• cernō
• certāmen

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de