Etymology and origin of the Latin word edoceo
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
- Ultimate origin
- Proto-Indo-European (*doḱ-eie-)
Forms
ēdoceō (present infinitive ēdocēre, perfect active ēdocuī, supine ēdoctum); second conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin ex- + doceō (“to teach”).[2][3][1] The verb doceō goes back to Proto-Italic *dok-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-eie- (“to make someone accept something”).[4] Cognate with Hittite dākki (“seems”) and Ancient Greek δοκεῖ (dokeî, “it seems”).[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Its first example in the OLD is Plautus' “I want you to teach me that reckoning thoroughly”.[2]
Semantic evolution
It means to instruct or inform thoroughly, to impart a full knowledge of something, with a double accusative, with the person or the thing alone, or with a clause.[2][5] Caesar uses it of slaves coached in what to say under questioning, and Livy of informing someone of everything in order.[2] The Thesaurus notes that in later Latin it often means no more than the simple doceō.[3]
Church Latin glosses it “teach completely, instruct”.[6]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of teaching a method thoroughly.[2][7]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of informing the ignorant of his case.[2][7]
- c. 50 BC – Caesar of coached slaves.[2][7]
- 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of reporting everything in order.[2][7]
Meanings
Verb
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry
“Edoceo.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/edoceo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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