Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Latin word eiecto

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
70–19 BC, Virgil
Ultimate origin
Latin ēiciō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin eicio
Latin eiecto

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈjɛk.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈjɛk.to][1]

Forms

ēiectō (present infinitive ēiectāre, perfect active ēiectāvī, supine ēiectātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is a frequentative, from Latin ēiciō (“to throw out”) + -tō.[2][3][1] The TLL compares iactō (“to throw about”), the frequentative of the simple verb.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Virgil, who uses it of spitting out blood: cruōrem ōre ēiectantem mixtōsque in sanguine dentēs, “spitting blood from the mouth, and teeth mixed with the blood”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a poetic word of the Augustan age, and the TLL finds it mostly in poets.[3][4] Ovid uses it of the burning earth throwing up ash, of sand thrown up, and of spitting out bloody food;[3][4] Silius Italicus of the river Aufidus throwing its waters over the fields, and Statius of the gold that Spain casts up from its mines.[3][4] Seneca brings it into prose for the particles that the earth sends up into the air.[4]

Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a river emptying into the sea, and in the passive of a river flowing out: the Nile issues through seven mouths.[4] Ancient glossaries explain it by ēmittit and ēructat.[4]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of spitting out blood.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of ash and sand thrown up.[3][4][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in prose.[4][6]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of rivers discharging into the sea.[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To throw out, cast up, discharge (fire, ash, water and the like).[2][3][4]
  2. To spit out, vomit.[2][3][7]
  3. (of a river) To pour out (into the sea); (passive) to flow out.[4]

Word family

  • ēiectāmentum
  • English eject

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
Cite this entry

“Eiecto.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/eiecto. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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