Etymologically
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edoceo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈdɔ.ke.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈdɔː.t͡ʃe.o][1]

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

  1. To teach thoroughly, instruct.[2][5][1]
  2. To inform fully, apprise.[2][5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ 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