dinumero

Forms

dīnumerō (present infinitive dīnumerāre, perfect active dīnumerāvī, supine dīnumerātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + numerō (“to count”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of numerus (“number”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *nomeso- and probably to an s-stem Proto-Indo-European *nem-e/os- (“apportioning”); he compares Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to dispense, distribute”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan first finds it in Plautus,^[4] where in the Epidicus it is used of counting out the money owed for her.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Plautus and Terence use it of counting out or paying money.^[5][6] Its wider sense is to count or reckon up: Cicero speaks of counting syllables and the stars, Virgil of counting the times, and Pliny the Elder of the place where Xerxes counted his army.^[5][7] In a letter Cicero writes of someone that he centuriat Capuae, dīnumerat; the OLD takes this as paying the soldiers, while the TLL understands counting the troops at the levy and notes the other view.^[5][8] Jurists such as Gaius use it of reckoning a number as the basis of a calculation, and Apuleius of enumerating, as when Plato names three kinds of love.^[5][9] The Vulgate has it in a psalm of counting all one's bones, and an Old Latin version of Acts of being numbered with the apostles.^[2][8] Medieval writers used it for enumerating and naming.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of counting out money.^[5][11]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of counting syllables and stars.^[5][11]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of counting times.^[5][11]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of reckoning a basis of calculation.^[5][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To count, reckon up the number of.^[5][7]
2. To count out (money), pay out.^[5][6]
3. (law) To take (a number) as the basis of a calculation, reckon.^[5]
4. To recount, enumerate.^[5][10]

Word family

• dīnumerātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de