Etymology and origin of the Latin word eiecto
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 70–19 BC, Virgil
- Ultimate origin
- Latin ēiciō
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
- To throw out, cast up, discharge (fire, ash, water and the like).[2][3][4]
- To spit out, vomit.[2][3][7]
- (of a river) To pour out (into the sea); (passive) to flow out.[4]
Word family
- ēiectāmentum
Related words
- English eject
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ 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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